MHMfElMMr
Vol.31 OCTOBER, 1928 No. 12
Irrigation
PROF. LEVI EDGAR YOUNG
Speed and the Spirit
JOSEPH J. CANNON
Native Plants
DR. J. H. PAUL
OCTOBER IN SOUTHERN UTAH
KENNETH S. BENNION
TURNING THE WASHINGTON
MONUMENT INSIDE OUT
ROBERT SPARKS WALKER
STORY OF RICE CULTURE
JOHN Q. ADAMS
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Mastodon Bones Found in Payson. A
short time ago bones of a large prehistoric
animal was found in Payson, Utah, by
Isaac Hansen, when loading gravel in a
pit belonging to Robert L. Wilson, a
contractor. The first specimen found was
embedded in a stratum of clay, covered
by ten feet of gravel and overlying a bed
of quicksand. This bone proved to be a
joint and measured fourteen inches in di-
ameter. After further digging, two other
bones, the femur and tibia, were uncov-
ered and measured eight and a half feet
in length. Dr. Hansen of the B. Y. Uni-
versity, Provo, is of the opinion the bones
are those of a mastodon, an animal which
lived 20,000 years ago.
Mission President named. Elder Clarence
H. Tingey, 1424 Stratford Ave., Salt Lake
City, was appointed, Aug. 28, 1928, by
the First Presidency to succeed Pres. Charles
H. Hyde in the presidency of the Australian
mission. He labored in that mission some
years ago — 1917 to 1920 — and is, there-
fore, well acquainted with its conditions
and requirements. Pres. Hyde will be
honorably released, as soon as his suc-
cessor arrives in the field.
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Through this book Karl G. Maeser will touch and strengthen the
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IMPROVEMENT ERA
Pres.
OCTOBER. 1928
Heber J. Grant Hugh J. Cannon
Editor Associate Editor
Melvin J. Ballard, Business Manager
Organ of the Priesthood Quorums, the Young Men's
Mutual Improvement Associations and the Schools of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
CONTENTS
HIGHWAY IN ZlON'S PARK ------ Frontispiece
HARVEST. A POEM Grace Ingles Frost 985
IRRIGATION Levi Edgar Young 98 7
LISTEN. A POEM Weston N. Nordgren 1000
Speed and the Spirit. A Story - - Joseph J. Cannon 1 001
THE TEST. A POEM Unice Petersen 1007
The Realms of Science and Religion - Dr. Joseph F. Merrill 1008
Warning Against Losing Old Faiths - - Sir Oliver Lodge 1014
October in Southern Utah. Illustrated - Kenneth S. Bennion 1015
My Homeland. A Poem R. C. Savage 1024
Turning the Washington Monument Inside Out
Robert Sparks Walker 1025
The Common Walks of Life. A Poem Bertha A. Kleinman 1033
Native Plants as Friends and Foes - ./. H. Paul 1034
Moonlight and Silver Stars. A Poem - 1040
A Short Story of Rice Culture John Q. Adams 1 04 1
Appreciation. A Story - Wm. A. Morton 1 04 3
AS A MAN THINKETH. A POEM Helen Kimball Orgill 104 3
Messages from the Missions. Illustrated - 1044
Editor's Table — A Forgotten VdlcE - - 105 5
Priesthood Quorums - - 105 7
Change in the Y. m. M. I. A. Office 1059
Mutual Work - ....... 1060
Passing Events -------- - 1070
Entered at the Post Office. Salt Luke City. Utah, at second-class matter. Acceptance
for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October. 1917 .
tuthorized on July 2, 1918.
Manuscripts submitted without the statement. "At usual rates," are considered free con-
tributions. Photographs, unless their return is especially requested, will be destroyed.
Published monthly at Salt Lake City: S2 per annum. Address: Room 406 Church
<» Off
Office Building.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
How Parents Can Educate Themselves,
an article which appeared in the Septem-
ber issue of the Era, consisted of a talk
given by Dr. B. L. Richards of the Utah
Agricultural College, at the National
Council of Parental Education at Detroit,
Michigan, in October, 1926, parts of
which were published by the Children's
Magazine, October, 1926. Acknowledg-
ment is here made to this magazine for
allowing the publication of the article.
Prof. Levi Edgar Young's article, "Ir-
rigation," found in this issue, treats an
important phase of the early history of
Utah from a new angle. As can be readily
seen, its preparation required much pains-
taking research, and it will prove a valu-
able contribution to our literature on this
subject.
Speed and the Spirit, a story of ideals,
literally true in every detail, by Joseph J.
Cannon, is a thrilling one which will be
eagerly read, we feel certain, by both
young and old. The pulses of all will
quicken as they peruse it. Our young
people, particularly, will be interested in
this article, and it will not only stir their
feelings deeply, but will leave them with
nobler ideals and a strong and impelling
desire to be true to their conceived stand-
ards of right and wrong. Parents whose
sons and daughters are not in the habit of
reading the Era will do well to call this
story to their attention.
Native Plants as Friends and Foes, by
Dr. J. H. Paul, is continued in this num-
ber. Another article of this same series is
promised for November. With these ar-
ticles their author is sure that any person
of average intelligence can go into our
mountains or upon the hillsides and identi-
fy any plant or shrub that comes under his
observation. Dr. Paul has spent more than
twenty years in accumulating the informa-
tion which he presents to our readers, and
heretofore nothing like it has been at-
tempted west of the Mississippi river. A
careful study of this series will richly re-
pay the effort, because of the joy which
comes with acquired knowledge. In ad-
dition this knowledge will materially in-
crease the pleasure of canyon trips.
An Eastern writer, Robert Sparks
Walker, furnishes for this number a unique
and interesting article, "Turning the Wash-
ington Monument Inside Out." Many
Era readers have no doubt visited this fa-
mous monument, but it is probable that
very few of them have climbed to its top
and seen what this author describes.
The last installment of Dr. Joseph F.
Merrill's article, "The Realms of Science
and Religion," is presented to our readers
in this issue. Like the first part, this de-
serves a thoughtful reading.
The Story of an Old Playhouse, a book
written by George D. Pyper, is just off the
press and is reviewed in this number of the
Era by Dr. Adam S. Bennion. Both the
book and the review are classics and should
not be overlooked. The Salt Lake Theatre,
which is the subject of this volume, is the
oldest legitimate playhouse in America. It
has recently passed into other hands and
preparations are already under way to raze
it. The fact that the historic building will
soon be nothing but a memory and that
the book was written by one who has
managed the playhouse longer than the
combined service of all the other managers
will add interest to the subject.
An official notice concerning the Gen-
ealogical class, issued by the general
authorities of the Mutuals, is to be found
in this number. It should be read by
all officers of the M. I. A. And in
this connection, it may be well to sug-
gest that officers of Priesthood quorums,
as well as leaders in the Y. M. M. I. A.,
should make it a practice to scan the pages
of the Era carefully. It is their official
organ and will contain notices, rulings and
instructions without which the leader is
sure to become involved in embarrassing
difficulties, which are easily avoidable
through timely preparation.
Volume 3 1 of the Era comes to a close
with this issue. Subscribers who desire to
have their magazines bound can obtain a
printed index from this office, free of
charge, by making application.
Harvest
The fields are sweet with fragrance
From hills of new-mown hay;
The grape-vine droops with purple fruit;
From dawn 'til turn of day,
The husbandman is busy,
Close binding golden sheaves;
Caresses of an autumn sun
Have caused the maple leaves
To blush an ardent crimson;
And, oh! the singing wind
Has in its voice a note I love —
A tone in which I find
A balm for hurt, a calm for storm,
Heartsease when toil is done,
A promise that for life well spent,
A harvest will be won.
Prom, Utah GRACE INGLES FROST
Improvement Era
Vol. XXXI
OCTOBER, 1928
No. 12
Irrigation
By Levi Edgar Young, of the First Council of Seventy
"O Maker of the material world, thou holy one! Who is it that rejoices
the earth with greatest joy? Ahura Mazda answered: 'It is he who sows most corn,
grass, and fruit: Who waters ground that is dry, or drains ground that is wet.'
"He Who Sows Corn, Sows Righteousness"
The Zend-Avesta
Behold! Our Mother Earth is lying here,
Behold! She giveth of her fruitfulness.
Truly, her power gives she us.
Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here!
Behold on Mother Earth the growing fields!
Behold the promise of her fruitfulness!
Truly, her power gives she us.
Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here.
Behold on Mother Earth the spreading trees!
Behold the promise of her fruitfulness!
Truly, her power gives she us.
Give thanksi to Mother Earth who lieth here!
Behold on Mother Earth the running streams!
Behold the promise of her fruitfulness!
Truly, her power gives she us.
Our thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here!
— From a Pawnee Song of the Earth.
A treasured relic in the Dcseret Museum at Salt Lake City bears this inscription:
THIS PLOUGH WAS USED BY ELDER WILLIAM CARTER
TO PLOUGH THE FIRST HALF ACRE IN SALT LAKE
VALLEY, JULY, 1847. ALSO THE FIRST FURROW IN
ST. GEORGE CITY, FEB., 1862.
THE plow which turned the first furrows in the valley of the
Great Salt Lake inaugurated a system of agriculture in Amer-
ica that today is practiced in most of the states west of the
Mississippi river. An half acre of land was plowed on that July
morning, and a small ditch was made which led the waters of City
Creek on to the soil. A great task was undertaken, and it is a
lesson in physical and moral fortitude to know in what spirit that
task was conceived. The "Mormon" pioneers were moving into
988 IMPROVEMENT ERA
the Great Basin, a country practically unknown at that time; at
least no one as yet had formed any conception of the possibilities
of the sage-brush soil. It was what the French writer, Febvre, says
was the ground soil of which the State carved its domain. The
people who began the conquest of the elements in those early days
of Utah were deeply religious and they had the power of adapting
their religion to practical purposes. They were new comers into a
fixed environment, and their economic growth was the result of an
immediate adaptation to their new surroundings.
The Indians of the southwest were the first irrigators of the
soil in America. As far back as we are able to trace the history of the
Navajos, Piutes, Zunis, and other tribes, we find that they raised
corn, pumpkins, beans and squash by watering the seed they had
planted. In Arizona, New Mexico, and southern Utah, prehistoric
canals and reservoirs are found which show that the natives brought
irrigation to a rather high state of development. In the Salt and
Gila valleys of Arizona, an immense network of ancient canals
has been discovered. Coronado, the Spaniard, came to the Seven
Cities of Cibola (Zuni) in 1542, where he found the Indians till-
ing the soil, and this could only be done by irrigating it, for it was
an arid country and water was necessary for the raising of crops.
Canals used by the Indians of ancient days were ten miles in length,
and even twenty-five mile canals have been traced. These canals
were seven feet deep and four feet wide, with the sides sloping gradu-
ally. Remains of wooden headgates have been found in the excava-
tions. "Several old canals have been utilized for miles by modern
ditch builders, and in one instance, a saving of from $20,000 to
$25,000 was effected by the "Mormon" settlement at Mesa, Arizona.
In the Chaco canyon of Northwestern New Mexico, large ditches
were made and the retaining walls were constructed of stone. The
Indians say that in some parts of the mountains where reservoirs
were constructed, large snowballs were rolled into them during the
winter, which provided water in the spring. Throughout the box
canyons of the Southwest, the natives used the "water pools." These
were natural reservoirs which collected the waters of spring and con-
served them during the summer months. When the Spaniards estab-
lished the missions in Arizona, New Mexico, and California, they
carried on irrigation and many of the old missions bear record of the
extensive agricultural pursuits of the Spanish people who settled the
present confines of the United States as early as the seventeenth
century.
In the early history of the Indians of the upper Missouri river,
we have some interesting references on irrigation. One time, Sak-
wi-ah-ki, or EARTH WOMAN, and Is-sap-ah-ki, or CROW
IRRIGATION 989
WOMAN, and Crow Woman's little daughter lived together in one
of the old camps of the Mandan Indians. After the buffalo had
been exterminated, and they had settled down at old Fort Conrad,
the old women and their daughters planted a garden by the river each
season, and laboriously watered the hills of corn, beans, and squash
with buckets which they carried up the steep banks. Beside the
garden, they would sit in their tepee, and watch the growing crops.
While they worked and irrigated they did beautifully colored por-
cupine-quill embroidery work on buffalo leather and buffalo robes.
Such work often required many summers to complete.
The state of Utah is in the very heart of the arid West. It
lies in the Great Basin between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra
Nevada Mountains and is the country that has less rainfall than any
other part of America. There are some parts where at times there
are only four inches a year. The Great Basin was explored by trap-
pers and adventurers from the early part of the eighteenth century to
1847, but no one seemed to appreciate the many natural resources
nor did anyone ever write or leave any statement as to the possibilities
of the soil. It was looked upon as desert waste. Sagebrush and
greasewood grew everywhere and the portion around the Great Salt
Lake was bleak and sterile and seemed to have an influence on the
entire country. There were prairie dogs, rattlesnakes, coyotes,
wolves and, in the early part of the century, there were buffalo.
The "Mormon" pioneers settled in this arid country. They
were accustomed to more humid conditions, where corn, wheat,
vegetables and fruits grew without irrigation, and where the land
needed only to be cleared, plowed and planted, and kept free from
weeds. In their former homes, in Missouri and Illinois, the "Mor-
mons" had become good farmers, and they always understood the
science of agriculture. They could adapt themselves to all condi-
tions of climate and kinds of work, and it was the careful reason-
ing from conditions that made them know the results that would
accrue from watering the soil of this extremely arid land.
Combination of geographic factors made irrigation possible.
The Wasatch mountains robbed the westerly winds of their moisture,
storing it in the form of snow in the higher altitudes. The canyons
afforded water courses, the rivers cutting their way into the alluvial
plains of the valleys, and easily transforming them into reservoirs.
These are the main factors in the task of catching the waters. To
conduct the waters, canals were often dug along mountain sides for
miles to some valley or vale far below. Agriculture was the first
industry, and it was a work common to all the people and com-
munities. The land was used to the best advantage by the farmers
of that day. The Bible speaks of "marrying the land," and the
990 IMPROVEMENT ERA
farmer of early-day Utah looked upon the land as "holy," using the
expression of Prof. L. H. Baily of Cornell University. The farmer
was characterized by initial utility. He cleared the land of the sage-
brush and greasewood, he then tilled it, for he sought the first values
of a virgin soil. In time the policies of government were dominated
by the farming element of the new territory.
On July 22, 1847, an advance company of the pioneers under
Orson Pratt entered the valley of the Great Salt Lake and camped
on Canyon Creek. On the 23rd, the company descended the hill and
camped on City Creek at a spot where the City and County Build-
ing now stands. The leader of this vanguard, Orson Pratt, called
a meeting of all the men and "dedicated the land to God." He asked
for the blessings on the seeds they were about to plant, and invoked
divine protection of the people that their work in the valley might
be successful. The camp was organized for work. Says Orson
Pratt in his Journal:
"This afternoon, we commenced planting our potatoes; after
which we turned the water upon them and gave the ground quite a
soaking." !
It is evident that, from the first, those colonizers had faith in the
sagebrush soil. Their plowing and planting on those memorable
days, July 23 and 24, 1847, marked the beginning of a system "that
has made the produce of the Western farm a competing force in the
world's market." Plowing and planting were continued during the
summer, and in the autumn hundreds of acres of land were cleared
and made ready for the coming spring. Sagebrush grew profusely,
and the farmer was compelled to drag it from the soil. Fortunately,
this was not a difficult thing to do, for the roots of the brush yield
readily to pick and harrow.
The Journal of Lorenzo D. Young and his wife, Harriet, both
of whom were in the pioneer company, is one of the most interesting
diaries we have on the migration of the "Mormons" to Utah. A
great deal is given about the general life in the community during
the first season, and in one part of the Journal is a sentence that tells
of an important event. Writing on October 19, 1847, Mr. Young
says: "I sowed the first acre of wheat that was sowed in the valley.
Two weeks after, I sowed another acre; two weeks after I sowed
another acre and dragged it in." On January 19, Mr. Young writes:
"This day I finished sowing winter wheat. The weather is warm
and pleasant, and the grass is growing finely." During the summer
of 1847, eighty acres of land were planted with corn, potatoes,
beans, buckwheat, turnips and a variety of "garden sauce." By
November between 200 and 300 acres of fall wheat were sown, and
just before the snow began to fall, a company of men went to San
IRRIGATION 991
Francisco to procure wheat for the spring sowing. During the
winter, which was mild, over 2000 acres of wheat were sown. As
the colonists spread out, wheat was planted, and it soon became
one of the staple products of the soil. The people were taught to
conserve a certain amount of their grain every year in little granaries.
This was done to prepare for shortages through loss of crops, by
drought and otherwise. It was a wise thing to do, for in those early
days the wheat put awayfor use in time of famine saved many people
from starving.
Farming in the valley was pursued by all the people. Plowing
and planting were continued through the first winter, for the season
was a mild one. By the summer of 1848, over 6000 acres of land
were brought under cultivation and, notwithstanding the destruction
wrought by the crickets in the spring of that year, the crops were
fairly good. Parley P. Pratt, in a letter of September, 1848. to
his brother Orson, then in England, says: "Early in March the
ground opened and we commenced plowing our spring crops. I
plowed and planted about twenty acres of Indian corn, beans,
melons, etc. My corn planting was completed on the 15th of May;
most of it has done extremely well. We have now had ears to boil
for nearly a month, and my large Missouri corn is in roasting ear.
I had a good harvest of wheat and rye without irrigation, though not
a full crop. Those who irrigated their wheat raised double the
quantity on the same amount of land. Winter and spring wheat
have both done well. Some ten thousand bushels have been raised
in the valley this season. Oats do extremely well, yielding sixty
bushels for one sowing; barley does well. Also all kinds of garden
vegetables; we had lettuce on the 4th of May and radishes by the
middle of May. We have raised a great quantity of beets, peas,
beans, onions, cucumbers, melons, squash and almost all kinds of
vegetables, as well as some 200 bushels of Indian corn. * * *
There will probably be raised in the valley this season from two to
twenty thousand bushels of grain over and above what will be con-
sumed by the present inhabitants."
The people began planting their gardens and plowing the land
beyond the city limits. The head of every family had a tract of
land, which became an industrial and economic unit. There was
little money in circulation and the people bartered whatever they had
in surplus. There were other companies on the plains when the
pioneers arrived in July, and by the end of the first year at least
four thousand "Mormon" immigrants had settled in the valley.
Within two years colonies had been sent out from Salt Lake to the
south and north. Ogden was founded; Lehi, American Fork, and
992 IMPROVEMENT ERA
Provo became thriving centers and within a few months colonizers
had gone into Sanpete county, made a treaty of peace with the
Sanpitch Indians and obtained that beautiful valley. It was not long
before the valleys of the Wasatch and the Colorado watersheds were
colonized by "Mormon" pioneers. Beautiful towns and cities were
laid out, and wheat fields and farms came to dot the great wastes of
these mountain climes. Brigham Young directed the colonizing and
in this one activity alone he showed remarkable genius. Professor
Charles A. Bear says in his Rise of American Civilization:
"The entire outcome of the adventure was due to the economic
system directed by Brigham Young. Tested by the widespread
prosperity which it eventually produced, in spite of all the diffi-
culties, that system was in most respects superior in results to the
methods adopted in any other American settlement organized on
communal principles. In the early days of the experiment, specu-
lators and commercial profiteers were both restrained by an iron
hand. Land was not sold at first to settlers outright; but each
family was allotted a share — proportioned to its needs — to till for
private profit as long as it was thrifty and industrious. None was
allowed to accumulate a large estate, and the industrious poor were
given advantages in competition with their richer neighbors. The
purchase of supplies and the sale of produce were carried on through
a common store, while irrigation works to provide water for the arid
soil were built by community action and service rights granted
to all families on equitable terms. Iron, woolen, printing, and
mining industries were managed also on the cooperative principle,
fair wages being paid and the profits going into the common chest
for the promotion of fresh undertakings."
The "Mormon" colonies were always well organized religious
and civic communities. Wherever they settled they constituted a
body of free persons united for the common benefit, to enjoy peace-
ably what is their own, and to do justice to others. The celebrated
French economist, DeMarns, says that "A state is a certain number
of men and of families who, being united and having a fixed home,
associate themselves and submit themselves to a common leader, with
the intention of living together for the good and safety of all." John
Fiske in his Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, gives us a paragraph
which applies to the social methods of the "Mormon" pioneers. He
says, "The ability to forego present enjoyment in order to avoid the
risk of future disaster is what we call prudence or providence. The
superior prudence of the civilized man is due in great part to his
superior power of self-restraint." Fiske also gives another splendid
thought which is applicable to the early-day history of Utah. Says
he, "The power of economizing in harvest time or in youth in order
IRRIGATION 993
i
to retain something upon which to live comfortably in wealth in our
old age is dependent upon the vividness with which distant circum-
stances can be pictured in the imagination."
The first economic problem of the pioneers arose with the ques-
tion of the division of the water of the streams on which the colonists
located. The work of reclaiming the soil and the digging of ditches
and canals was difficult. There was much severe labor, combined
with hardship and exposure, and yet the redeeming of the land was
made pleasurable because of the ideal of religion and home which
the people always sacredly held. A wider division of labor came in
due time, and brought about a greater abundance of material goods.
Roads and bridges were built, and eventually the people asked Con-
gress to build a railroad to their new Territory.
Variety of work brings love of freedom, and democratization
of society. This raised labor to dignity and self-respect, and
brought happiness and the spirit of altruism. A sense of novelty
and freedom developed in early Utah, for the economic and social
life of the people was founded pretty much on general ownership of
land, and every man owned his home. The economic wisdom of
their leader, Brigham Young, is seen in his words to his people,
December 18, 1848. Said he: "The immense labor of irrigating
alone, to say nothing of the scarcity of water that exists in nearly
every settlement during mid-summer, at the very time that water is
most needed, should be an incentive to the farmer to exert himself
by more thorough culture and liberal application of every species of
fertilization, to raise his sustenance from a smaller quantity of land."
The economic success of the "Mormon" migrations is attested
by the fact that every company brought seeds and trees, oxen, mules,
horses, poultry, sheep, hogs, etc., safely into the valley. When
Captain Howard Stansbury was returning with his command to the
East after having spent the winter of 1849-50 in Salt Lake City,
he met a caravan of ninety-five wagons each drawn by from three
to five yoke of oxen in fine condition. "The wagons swarmed
with women and children. * * * I estimated the train at one
thousand head of cattle, one hundred head of sheep, and five hundred
human souls." A few days later on his journey on the upper Platte,
Stansbury met crowds of emigrant wagons wending their way to the
"Mormon" valley, with droves of cattle and sheep. (Expedition to
the Great Salt Lake, pp. 130-1.) Catherine Coman has rightly char-
acterized the "Mormon" migration as "all in all, the most successful
example of regulated immigration in American history."
In the early days of the State, before the introduction of
capital, irrigation meant more than a mere investment. It meant the
very material to keep people's bodies and souls together. If the irri-
994 IMPROVEMENT ERA
gation water failed, the settlers might be destitute; if sure, the
settlers were able to build comfortable homes and live in peace and
plenty. When a community met with repeated trouble or had
difficulty in finishing a project, people from neighboring towns came
and helped, and thus aided in removing a burden which would other-
wise have been crushing. Persistence has borne fruit, until now
there are over a million acres of fertile land in the State under irriga-
tion systems, and the acreage is rapidly increasing.
Institutions in Utah show distinctly the influence of irrigation
farming. The cities and towns are located on streams, and the farm-
ers live in villages rather than on their farms as in the East and Middle
West. Irrigation has given a rather intensive system of agriculture
and it has also made it possible to produce a greater diversity of vege-
tables and cereals. These facts, in their turn, have an influence on
the entire economic condition of the commonwealth, making it more
stable and giving it a better balance. They also have contributed
to the educational progress of the state. The schools have always
been better than they would have been if the people had lived
farther apart. The accomplishments of irrigation in the past in-
clude the making possible of establishing a permanent, prosperous
commonwealth in the midst of a desert, thousands of miles from
civilization; the development of a sturdy manhood and womanhood
and the grouping of the tillers of the soil into communities, which
have excellent social and economic advantages.
Farming in bygone days was, however, a toil beyond imagina-
tion. The land had to be cleared of sage and greasewood. Heavy
drags were made of tree trunks and poles, and the brush was burned.
The plows were made of wood and the shares of iron. Often the land
was hard and dry, and water for the season might be late, or the
sources of the streams dried up. Rains might not come, and drought
would prevent the preparation of the soil. "Still there was some-
thing about the soil that gripped the farmer. He was farm-minded,
and never ceased to look forward for the ushering in of a Golden
Age the following spring. It might have been too wet or too dry ;
or the grasshoppers might have eaten up the crops; or the worms
taken their substance. But next year the farmer prospered and all
was well; for he dealt not with prosaic known things, but with the
sunny future; and he left events in the hands of God. He loved
the great out-of-doors. He found joy in the fields; and he was
happy to see the corn dancing in the breeze."
The story of irrigation in the West is a dramatic and tragic one.
Not always would the crops mature, and sometimes if it were not
a drought it was a flood, which would overrun the land and carry
away the seed and potato fields. Not until reservoirs were made
IRRIGATION 995
and the water conserved in the different parts of the State were the
farmers sure of having enough water for their crops. At first irriga-
tion was practiced by the individual family; but where a tract of
land was settled by a group of families all united their efforts and
dug large canals and ditches from the mountain streams and rivers.
Not only would they build their canals and ditches together, but
groups of men who lived as neighbors would unite in building
cabins. One group would go to the canyon and get out the logs,
another would haul them to the farm site, while a third group had
prepared the ground for the building. With their united efforts it
was not long before substantial log cabins made up the settlements.
These together with the old adobe and rock house made the early
Utah dwellings places of good homes and substantial farms. The
"Mormon" colonizers had not only a knowledge of agriculture and
other useful arts, but well defined ideas of government and the ad-
ministration of justice. They naturally turned to the establishment
of American civic and political life in their communities. They soon
acquired a new type of colony and a new incentive to labor more
assiduously and to adopt rules for making their labor more effectual.
They established markets for surplus agricultural produce, and
markets brought about the building of roads and bridges. The
colonists of Utah realized that a country will seldom have potenti-
ality of agriculture unless it has a large town population, or, in other
words, a population non-agricultural. Towns make it possible for
markets and wherever there are communities composed of a non-
agricultural population the people naturally pursue other lines of
activity which make for a dynamic society. To understand the
early history of Utah one must know the larger elements of economic
life and the forces that gave rise to civilized communities. Freedom
of spirit, and the diffusion of education are necessary for the dis-
covering of those people who possess unusual gifts. There must,
therefore, be a general diffusion of education in all social groups.
Taussig has pointed out that the effectiveness of industry depends
not alone upon material equipment, but also on what we may call
immaterial equipment; not only on accumulated surplus, but moral
qualities, abundance of industry, truthfulness, honesty, sobriety, and
consideration for others.
Originally every settlement in the Great Basin was of small
population. Land and water were free to all. All had plenty; but
naturally sooner or later community action was necessary to procure
water. Water then became an "economic good" because effort was
needed to obtain it. Therefore, the first great problem of any "Mor-
mon" community in early days was the problem of securing enough
water for land, for the people were totally dependent upon irriga-
996 IMPROVEMENT ERA
tion and as population increased in any community the problem
of water and land increased.
There was an economic foundation in the development of
Utah that is very striking. Economists have told us that the more
things a community has in the nature of wealth, the less prosperity
there is. In communities where it is hard to get a living and where
obstacles have to be overcome, the people gain in resources which
lead eventually to greater prosperity. So it is with individuals.
He who has abundant means at his command often lacks spirit and
in the end is surpassed in happiness as well as in resources by him
who had to face hardships from the start. Taussig has pointed
out in his Principles of Economics, that "Wealth is the result of
effort." It is the scarcity that lies at the base of economic life, and
scarcity of materials supplied by nature must be adapted to man's
use by labor.
In the "Mormon" communities in early days there was another
type of work besides reclaiming the land. Out of a study of
seventy-two towns and cities in Utah, we find that everyone of
them had a meeting house and school within a very short time,
and substantial public buildings were erected by all the people
working together. In Salt Lake City there was a civic building
put up as early as 1850, and in the building of the "Mormon"
Tabernacle and Temple the builders and craftsmen enjoyed their
work for they had what Ruskin has pointed out, "the joy of
beauty and character." In this spirit of mutual helpfulness a
democracy of society sprang up which raised labor to dignity and
self-respect. There was an equalization of conditions, and this
brought about happiness and the spirit of altruism.
Wherever the "Mormons" settled they acquired property and
in some instances considerable tracts of land, and the love of prop-
erty to a certain degree is indispensable to sound morals. Naturally
as the pioneers acquired land they sold their first farms in time at
an enhanced price. The possession of this money awakened an
interest again in life and work. The possession of property de-
manded naturally the hedge of laws. The "Mormon" pioneer was
easily reconciled to government and his impatience to realize certain
hopes impelled him to a life of sobriety and perseverance. It was
not hard for the Utah pioneer to join his neighbors in building
schools and to do everything to secure teachers. He easily built a
church and had a regard for his own character and the character and
felicity of his family. He always attended to the worship of God
on Sundays for he was naturally a religious man.
When the pioneers inaugurated the system of irrigation in
IRRIGATION 997
the middle of the nineteenth century, they inaugurated a creative
epoch. America was fast entering the age of great internal improve-
ments. There was a larger change in the industrial history of the
world between the years 1830 and 1850 than in all the rest of the
ages of the world together. During that period, the reaper, the
mowing machine, the modern plow, the sewing machine were all
invented, and these changed the economic and social life of all
America, and made it possible for the Western pioneer to bring the
land almost immediately into subjection. In 1878, Major John
W. Powell wrote a report on the IRRIGATION LANDS OF THE
WEST. Powell in his report shows two advantages of irrigation: 1.
That crops thus cultivated are not subject to the vicissitudes of
rain-fall. 2. The water for irrigation generally comes down
from the mountains and plateaus freighted or charged with fertiliz-
ing materials gathered from the decaying vegetable matter and soil
of the higher regions. He saw that only the government could
accomplish the great feat of conserving the waters and reclaiming
the millions of acres of arid land of the West. He explained many
of the gigantic engineering problems involved in the storage of
waters; the erection of stupendous dams capable of sustaining the
never-ceasing pressure of such large volumes of water as would
be needed to make irrigation of large areas constant. Powell's report
is one of the most remarkable works ever written on the West, and
for the first time in our history the attention of the government was
called to the importance of the lands of the irrigated regions. Powell's
survey of the land stimulated a new interest in the West, and
a series of national irrigation congresses were held in various
cities of the West from year to year, the first of which was held in
Salt Lake City, September 15, 1891. Another was held in Los
Angeles, California, in 1893, and the third in Denver, Colorado, in
1894. These conventions, with subsequent ones, all advocated the
reclamation of the lands of the West, and at the ninth Irrigation
Congress, held in Chicago in 1900, resolutions were adopted in favor
of a comprehensive system for the storage of waters and the reclama-
tion of our Western lands.
In December, 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt outlined his
ideas for a system of national reclamation and irrigation in his
message to Congress. In words that precipitated a wave of great
interest in the question of reclamation, he said: "The pioneer settlers
on the arid public domain chose their homes along streams from
which they could themselves divert the water to reclaim their hold-
ings. Such opportunities are practically gone. There remain, how-
ever, vast areas of public lands which can be made available for
homestead settlement, but only by reservoirs and main-line canals
998 IMPROVEMENT ERA
impracticable for private enterprise. These irrigation works should
be built by the national government."
As a result of President Roosevelt's statement Senator New-
lands of Nevada introduced his bill which became our national
irrigation law. It provides that "the entire receipts from the sale of
public lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas,
Montana, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, Ne-
braska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and
Oregon, be set aside and appropriated as a special fund in the
Treasury to be used for the construction and maintenance of irriga-
tion works for the storage of and development of waters for the
reclamation of the arid lands of the West." The law makes it
possible for a man to take up from forty to 160 acres of land and
to pay the government $1.25 an acre. As a result of this bill,
great irrigation projects have been constructed in the far West, and
hundreds of young men have gone on to the farm.
Within a few years, twenty-five great projects were under way,
and with their completion nearly four million acres of land will be
reclaimed. In Utah alone the irrigated land has been doubled by
the building of the reclamation projects, which include the Straw-
berry valley reservoir and the Utah Lake reservoir. With the
completion of the government reservoirs in the West, an area as
large as France and Germany will be brought under cultivation.
The most outstanding piece of work in reclamation is that of the
Roosevelt Dam in the Salt River valley of Arizona. Its height
is 286 feet, it is 800 feet long, and has made the largest artificial
lake in the world, being twenty-five miles in length, and two miles
wide. In its construction many Indians were employed, and the
total cost was $6,500,000.00. This reservoir is located in a
country where ages ago the native races had their canals and reser-
voirs. Along the Gila and Salt River valleys are many remains
of irrigation canals and ditches. The old city of Los Muertos was
composed of thirty-six large communal structures. It was supplied
with water by a large canal seven feet deep, four feet wide at the
bottom, and thirty feet wide at the top. The walls had been ce-
mented and from it were constructed many smaller canals for the
distribution of water over the fields. Old posts for the gates for
the regulation of the flow have been found at the head of the
laterals, and Dr. Hodge has reported that at least 200,000 acres
of land were irrigated by the ancient people in the Salt River valley
alone.
Among the most important government projects that have
been completed are the following:
IRRIGATION 999
Salt River, Arizona Truckee-Carson, Nevada Belle Fourche,
Yuma, Calif. — Arizona Lower Yellowstone South Dakota
Uncompahgre, Colorado Montana— North Dakota Strawberry Valley,
Minidoka, Idaho Utah
Milk River. Montana Klamath, Oregon Tieton ^^
North Platte, Nebraska California Sunnyside, Wash.
Wyoming Umatilla, Oregon Shoshone, Wyo.
The project at American Falls in Idaho has just been completed,
and it takes its place as one of the most important pieces of work in
the history of reclamation.
Today on the old Oregon trail, where, a generation ago, thou-
sands of pilgrims treked their way to Oregon and California, there
are large farms of alfalfa, sugar beets, oats, potatoes, and corn.
Bungalows, barns, and feeding corrals dot the country side; and
beautiful towns and villages have replaced the Indian tepees. The
pilgrim is no longer going "where rolls the Oregon." He is settling
on the land to redeem it; not to fight the Indians as of yore, but to
fight the gophers and grasshoppers. The old trail east of the
Rockies runs through an irrigated country that produces as fine
crops as any country in the world. The trail has become the Lin-
coln highway, on each side of which is a vast empire of fields and
gardens.
The work of the Reclamation Service is founded deep in
democracy and the needs of the common people, for it gives the
lowliest, poorest, and humblest the opportunities to have homes
and the comforts of life for themselves and their children. The
reclamation work, as fostered by the government, is the first example
in the history of the world where irrigation works of gigantic magni-
tude have been built for the benefit and profit of the people. The
people are to own and maintain them. Land is not to be the prop-
erty of the few, but of all the people. Herein is American democracy
expressing itself as never before in history.
Well may. we sing the Irrigation Ode composed by Mrs. Gil-
bert McClurg:
Oh! desert land!
The land of the smiting sun-glare, deep-blue of the star-pierced night,
Of rcck-piled heights and chasms, awe-fraught to the dizzying sight,
Where the shadow ever chases the light of the blinding day
With purple and pink and crimson, opalescent and far away!
The candlesticks of the cactus flame-torches here up-hold;
Sunflower disks and feath'ry mustard spread fields of the cloth of gold.
The polished cups of amole are girded with spears of thorn —
When the desert wind arises,- — and they fade as they are born!
The rainbow-colored spaces, wan and withered in a breath; —
Bones of man and beast lie together, under mirage-mock of death!
1000 IMPROVEMENT ERA
Chorus:
Life of sky and sand awaking to prey when all is done;
Land of the desolate people, born of sirocco and sun!
Oh! desert land!
Oh! glorious land!
The land of homes for the homeless; of shepherded flocks and herds;
The land where the green-walled thickets are choral with songs of birds;
Where, over the ancient furrows, silver streamlets are re-drawn;
Where slopes, once arid, lie teeming with wealth of the vine and corn;
The land of sunny spaces, the land of the leafy glades;
Of the faith that sees in the desert the promise of verdant blades,
Where fruits, purple, crimson and golden, roll from Plenty's horn,
Where souls of noble fealty, of diviner mood are born;
Where, on glimmering heights of future, gleam fair regenerate years.
Read in crystal chrism of water, the transparent globe of seers!
Chorus:
In the garden grows the Tree of Life where Eden's rivers run,
Land of the world-dowered people, nurtured by water and sun!
Oh! glorious land!
Listen
Listen! The woods now are calling!
The mountains are casting their spell —
A call has come out from the highlands.
Where the creatures of nature dwell.
Oh hark! The light winds are telling
Of wonderful things they have seen.
They're asking you to explore them —
The hills and the valleys so green!
Listen! The murmuring brooklet
Glides on, to a much larger stream;
The twittering song of the warblers,
In beauty surpasses your dream.
And listen! neighbor, the outdoors
Is better, as autumn draws nigh;
The heat of summer is over,
And the soft, cooling breezes sigh!
Come then, be joyful and merry,
Enjoy life while your autumn lasts;
For seasons come, and seasons go,
But the die of life isn't cast!
Weston N. Nordgren
Speed and the Spirit
By Joseph J. Cannon
[This story was read to Dr. Haymond in order to assure accuracy of details. He objected
to the suggestion of the heroic, but we agree with the author that as long as he refrained from
the slightest exaggeration, adhering strictly to the facts, the story should stand as it is. — £d/fors.]
I LIKE Springville. The town has character. The people there
seem a little more subject to enthusiasms than most. Years
ago when state prohibition was a faint hope, national a dream.
Springville refused to license saloons. Revenues were scarce and bars
elsewhere invited her sons, but Springville had ideals.
I am wondering which influence more greatly stirred the genius
of Cyrus Dallin in his youth, the beauty of the close mountains, that
startling range from Timpanogos to Nebo, or the appreciative friend-
ship of his neighbors in Springville. I know he loves those neighbors
now with a great love. I am sure the sensitive soul of John Hafen
felt deeply there the harmony of his human surroundings. His gentle,
artistic mood was affected by them as much as by the evening light
across the lake or the autumn hues on the mountainside. Art galler-
ies like the noted one at the Springville high school are not accidents.
They grow out of the soul of a people.
About a score of years ago I was guest at a home there. The
large lot was half city, half country, lawn in front, garden and
stables behind, typical "Mormon" settlement home, part of a farm
but away from it, built before the time of autombiles and good roads,
when Indians and isolation induced the farmers to live in town and
raise their field crops at a distance. Milk cows came from the
pasture at night and lay down at peace in a corral. In the stable
were a number of horses, among them a Shire stallion.
Out on the lawn under the high apple trees I visited much with
two children whom I loved, a black-haired boy and a golden-haired
girl, twins, Creed like his mother, Elma like her father. They seemed
so typical of the little town, those two, of its best traditions, high-
minded, enthusiastic, charming. They interested me greatly, those
sprightly youngsters, well born, both as to parents and to commu-
nity. I drew from them many things. They had ideals; they said
their prayers; they had never tasted tea or coffee. That suggested
something. In that shady garden we three entered into a contract.
We would never use tobacco, tea or coffee, or liquor, until we all sat
down and had these things together. I did not consider it a very
serious contract — for the twins.
Years passed. Creed interested himself in athletics and played
basketball in high school. Then he entered the University of Utah
and made the track team. Soon he became known as the Utah flash.
1002 IMPROVEMENT ERA
"The 'Mormon' speed demon," his competitors on other teams called
him. Sportsmen said he ran like a million dollars — whatever that
may mean. The professional work he wished to do could not be
prepared for here, so he went East, to the University of Pennsylvania.
Several years ago I saw on the wall of his office the photograph
of the finish of a race. It interested me. He mentioned that there
was a story connected with it. Part he told me then. At different
times since I have drawn most of it from him, little by little, and
learned some details from others.
It was the end of May, 1919, at the Harvard stadium, the an-
nual meet of the Inter-Collegiate Association of Amateur Athletes of
America — the I. C. 4 A's. To Cambridge the great American col-
leges had sent their best men, seventeen hundred in all, to compete.
Creed Haymond was captain of the Pennsylvania team. The night
before the meet Coach Lawson Robertson came to the room. He was
in good spirits. In the try-outs Penn had qualified seventeen men.
Cornell, her most feared rival that year, had only ten. As the scoring
for the five first places in each event was five, four, three, two, one,
naturally the number of men a team had in the finals greatly influ-
enced its chances.
"Creed," Robertson said, "if we do our best tomorrow we will
run away with it."
"We're going to do our best, Robby."
The coach hesitated. "Creed, I'm having the boys take a little
sherry wine tonight. I want you to have some, just a little of
course."
"I won't do it, Coach."
"But, Creed, I'm not trying to get you to drink. I know what
you 'Mormons' believe. I'm giving you this as a tonic, just to put
you all on your metal."
"It wouldn't do me any good, Robby; I can't take it."
"Remember, Creed, you're captain of the team and our best
point winner, fourteen thousand students are looking to you per-
sonally to win this meet. If you fail us we'll lose. I ought to know
what is good for you."
Creed Haymond believed he had the best coach in the world,
and with reason, for Lawson Robertson has since been chosen head
coach for the Olympic teams of 1920, 1924, and 1928. Creed knew
too, that other coaches felt a little wine to be useful when men have
trained muscle and nerve almost to the snapping point. He also
knew that his team needed his best efforts. He intensely wished to
give them, but there is something of steely moral courage in Creed
Haymond and he looked Robertson in the eye and said, "I won't take
it, Coach."
SPEED AND THE SPIRIT
1003
Robertson smiled a little, not a gay smile it is true. On his grim
Scotch face there was a curious expression. "You're a funny fellow,
Creed. You won't take tea at the training table. You have ideas of
your own. Well, I'm going to let you do as you please."
He went away and left the captain of his team in a state of
extreme anxiety. Supposing, Creed thought, he made a poor showing
tomorrow; what could he say to Robertson? He was to go against
the fastest men in the world. Nothing less than his best would do.
This stubbornness of his might lose the meet for Penn. His team-
mates were doing as they were told. They believed in their coach.
Creed Haymond (second from right) at the Harvard Stadium. Johnson of Michigan at his
left. Two of the six runners have been cut off the picture, so that its size need not be too
greatly reduced.
What right had he to disobey? Only one right, one reason, this
thing he had been following and believing all his life — this Word of
Wisdom. But what is it anyway, something Joseph Smith thought
up or really a revealed message to us from God? It was a critica!
hour of the young man's life and, with all the spiritual forces of his
nature suffusing him, he kneeled down and earnestly, very earnestly,
1004 IMPROVEMENT ERA
asked the Lord to give him a testimony as to the source of the revela-
tion he had believed and obeyed. Then he went to bed and slept the
sound slumber of healthy youth.
Next morning Coach Robertson came into the room and asked
anxiously, "How are you feeling, Creed?"
"Fine," the captain answered cheerfully.
"The other fellows are vomiting. I don't know what's the
matter with them," he said seriously.
"Maybe it's the tonic you gave them. Coach," Creed volun-
teered.
"Maybe so," Robertson answered shortly.
I heard Jack Dempsey tell once of the strange feelings he had
during the hours preceding a fight. While amateur events evoke less
cruel determination to win than where one's job in life is involved,
every athlete who is about to meet the supreme test before a great
crowd has the tenseness, fright, exhilaration, the feeling of glory
that makes the occasion memorable. On that almost perfect day in
late May the Penn team entered the great Harvard stadium entitled
to full measure of confidence. The dope sheets of the coaches and
others, where every man was listed and graded from past perform-
ance, gave Penn a margin over the best of the other teams. Gathered
there was the flower of American athletics. Every man was known.
Of the seventeen entrants Pennsylvania had qualified the day before,
she counted on seven to win the meet and on others to pile up points.
Two o'clock found twenty thousand spectators in their seats- —
the same sport-loving crowd that has watched bull fights in Spain,
jousts in France and England, gladiators in Rome and the fair ath-
letes of Greece — waiting, that crowd, to see conflict, joyous, excited,
partizan, every contest on track or field giving rise to an emotional
battle among the spectators, but multiplied many thousand times
as the tense occupants of the bleachers in divided sympathy made
their feeling vocal; generous, though, that crowd, ready to cheer the
best man, victor though he might be over the friends of most of them.
As the events got under way, it became plain that something
was wrong with the wonderful Penn team. In that beautiful race,
the quarter mile, the grinding test of speed and endurance, Pennsyl-
vania's man was figured to take second place and win four precious
points. The startled Penn supporters watched the field run away
from him; he came in last. In the half-mile event the inter-collegiate
champion of the year before was Penn's entrant. Coach Robertson's
dope sheet gave him first in that event with five points. He finished
fifth with one point. Two men were entered in the pole vault.
They were considered the classiest men in America in that picturesque
event. They were expected to take first and second places and win
SPEED AND THE SPIRIT 1005
nine points. At a height below their own records they tied for third
place and won between them five points. The man entered fot
high jump, confidently counted on as a point winner, did not place.
The one who should have taken third in the low hurdles was too sick
to run.
The hundred-yard dash, the classic of track events was an-
nounced. The six fastest men in the colleges of America took their
places. This and the two hundred twenty yards to be run later were
Creed Haymond's races. Penn desperately needed him to win them.
Would the jinx that had been pursuing his team get the captain?
In the toss up Haymond had drawn the second lane. At his side in
the first lane was Johnson of Michigan, six feet two inches tall.
"Ready!" The six sprinters crouched. Each put his fingers on
the ground at the line and his right foot into the hole he had kicked
for the start.
"Set!" Every nerve and muscle strained.
The pistol shot — and every man sprang forward into the
air and touched earth at a run — that is, all except one — Creed Hay-
mond, captain of the Pennsylvania team. The tall Johnson had
used that second lane in the semi-finals and with greater spread had
kicked a hole for his toe an inch or two behind the spot Haymond
had just chosen for his. Under the tremendous thrust Creed gave,
the narrow wedge of earth broke through, and he came down on his
knee behind the line.
Probably most sprinters would have let the others go. No
coach or crowd would expect a man to get up and make a pitiful
spectacle of himself running behind. Creed Haymond, I said, has
moral courage. His physical courage matches it. He got up and
ran behind, but, man, how he did run! His brain on fire — the
school — the team — Robby — desperate, but not hopeless — at sixty
yards, the last in the race — then seeming to fly — passing the fifth
man — the fourth — the third — the second — only the tall Johnson
ahead — and close to the tape — lips away from teeth — face drawn
in agony — heart bursting with the strain — sweeping in that climax
of whirlwind swiftness past Johnson to victory. The timers caught
the flash as he crossed the tape and called it ten seconds flat; — but
no man could know the actual speed of that running.
Through some mistake in arrangement, the semi-finals of the
220 yards were not completed until almost time to close the
meet. With the same bad break that had followed the Penn team
all day, Creed Haymond was placed in the last heat. Five minutes
after winning it he was called to start in the final of the two-twenty,
the last event of the day. One of the other men who had run in an
earlier heat rushed up to him.
1006 IMPROVEMENT ERA
"Tell the starter, Haymond, you demand a rest before running
again. You're entitled to it under the rules. I've hardly caught my
breath yet and I ran in the heat before yours."
Creed went panting to the starter and begged for more time.
The official said he would give ten minutes. Just then the telephone
rang and the starter was ordered to begin the race, as the crowd was
clamoring. Regretfully he called the men to their marks. Under
ordinary conditions Creed would have had no fear for this race. He
was probably the fastest man in the world at this distance, but he had
already run three races during the afternoon, one the heart-breaking
hundred yards, and only five minutes before the 220 semi-finals.
At a high point in the grand stand Coach Lawson Robertson, of
Pennsylvania, and Coach Tom Keene, of Syracuse, sat with their
stop watches in hand. It had been announced that Haymond would
try to break the world's record. The two coaches had chosen this
place as the best possible one from which to get the correct time of
the race. From it they could see perfectly the smoke from the re-
volver and were above the runners at the tape. During their pro-
fessional careers they had timed from different positions thousands
of sprinters. They knew their game.
With surprise they saw the starter order the breathless men to
their marks, and standing behind them raise his pistol; then the
white puff of smoke. That explosion gave sudden movement to
those still, crouched forms. They rose from the ground like a flock
of frightened birds. This time the Penn captain literally shot from
his marks. Robertson's heart bounded with his man. What a sweet
sight as almost arm to arm the runners started down the straight
away. Haymond was emerging from the crowd and definitely tak-
ing the lead. Would he have the stamina to hold the pace after
the strain of the other run? The two coaches noted his magnificent
stride — legs extended like a hurdler's — he was sprinting away from
the field. They sensed the superlative swiftness and held their
breath. Running his race alone, unpressed by competition, the little
Penn captain drove himself to the tape in a burst of speed, eight
yards ahead of his nearest man. As he crossed it, both coaches, di-
rectly above him, snapped their stop-watches; then looked at them;
then looked at each other almost with awe. Both watches registered
twenty-one flat.
Something of the glory of that achievement tempered Coach
Robertson's disappointment. Penn had lost the meet. Davis, her
other sprinter, had run sixth instead of second, as his records entitled
him to do, both in the hundred and the two-twenty, following in al-
most fatalistic sequence the failures of his team-mates that day. To
everybody's amazement, Pennsylvania, out of seventeen entrants.
SPEED AND THE SPIRIT 1007
had only one inter-collegiate champion, Captain Creed Haymond.
The two coaches hurried down to consult the timers. To their
astonishment and disgust, they found that the officials had caught
differing time on the wonderful race. Robertson laid his hand on
the shoulder of the captain of his team. There was a touch of sad-
ness in his voice. "Boy," he said, "they're not going to give you
your true time. We can't help that, but it may comfort you to know
that you just ran the two hundred and twenty yards in the fastest
time it has ever been run by any human being."
At the end of that strange day, as Creed Haymond was going to
bed, there suddenly came to memory his question of the night
before regarding the divinity of the Word of Wisdom. The pro-
cession of that peculiar series of events then passed before his mind, —
his team-mates taking the wine and failing — his own abstinence and
victories, victories that were amazing to himself. Had Daniel and
his three continent companions as startling reason for testimony?
He had asked the favor of some witnesses from the Lord. What
relation did all those things have to his prayer? In the sports of
track and field, does God teach his purposes?
For hours, sleepless, he lay in contemplation. And to the clean
heart of this young man of sweet, simple faith came the assurance
he had sought.
"This Word of Wisdom which has been supposed to have become stale, and not
in force, is like all the counsels of God, in force as much today as it ever was. There
is life, everlasting life, in it — the life which now is and the life which is to come.
"The travels and labors of the elders about to go on missions will throw them
into positions which will cause them to seek unto the Lord. They need to live their
religion, to go forth with pure hearts and clean hands, and then preach the Gospel by
the power of God sent down from heaven. They should touch not and taste not of
sin, and when they return they should come pure and clean, ready to meet the Saints
with open countenances."- — Brigham Young.
The Test
It's easy to praise and keep the faith
In the midst of clear evidence;
It's natural to turn to God in need,
And be blessed by his providence.
But with his powers unmanifest,
Do you have the strength to stand the test?
Each new-born day with hope is prized;
But night leaves hope unrealized.
Can you keep your confident glow the same,
When your own weak heart must kindle the flame?
Endure with patience? Trust and pray?
That is the test we face today.
Fielding. Utah EUNICE PETERSEN
The Realms of Science and Religion
By Dr. Joseph F. Merrill, Commissioner of Education
L. D. S. Church
(Conclusion)
I SAID that modern science has had a profound influence on the
religious ideas of our time. Science has demonstrated that we
live in a world of law and order. In fact, all experimentation
with nature is based upon this view — that under the same conditions
nature always acts in the same way. This is called the orderliness
of nature. So science shows God is not a whimsical being, nor is
he a statical being. Change is found everywhere in nature. Dr.
Millikin surmises that we are on the verge of discovering how suns
are created and obliterated. Another thing the science of this gen-
eration has done is to reveal to us a world and a universe more
extensive, more mysterious, and more wonderful than man ever
imagined before. The new physics has revealed a new wonder world.
But what has all this to do with a sermon? Many of you are
doubtless asking this question. As one reply, may I answer that,
judged by modern practice, it would be very difficult to define a
sermon other than as some kind of discourse given on Sunday. And
this is Sunday.
But seriously, I have a purpose in talking about these problems
in science. Some students sometimes assume an unfriendly attitude
toward religion and religious doctrines and assume that in the field
of science there is definiteness and certainty, in contrast to the vague
uncertainty and mere belief wh'ch they say are characteristic of the
religious realm. Furthermore, these students are sometimes able to
show wherein teachers of religion have changed their views and no
longer stand for things once taught. Also they say religious teachers
indulge in dogmatic assertions about things that are not true. Well,
what about the scientists? In these matters can "pot call kettle
black?" On these grounds does our irreligious student have any
more cause to rail against teachers of religions than of science?
But this line of talk is not constructive. I said once before,
both scientists and religionists are probably more open-minded and
more tolerant than they used to be. I think we will all admit there
is need they should be.
After all, man is finding out that he doesn't know very much.
The more he delves into nature the more wonderful and mysterious
be finds the situation. So the truly tolerant man and the man who is
true to the real spirit of science must also be a very humble man.
THE REALMS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1009
He does not have to delve very far before coming against the un-
known and apparently unknowable. Suppose we find matter is
made up of electricity. That docs not solve the riddle of electricity.
The earth behaves as if it were a great magnet. But why this magnet-
ism is as much a mystery today as ever. We know how to generate
electric currents. But no man can explain why they are generated.
So we find mystery and the unknown in every direction and on
every hand. But so far as we go. so far as we know, there is a won-
derful beauty and order in it all. Whether we look with unaided
eyes, or with a microscope, or a telescope, we see the same matchless
harmony everywhere. The "music of the spheres" is not mere poetic
license, it is a fact of nature.
But our young scientist wants to deal with certainties: matters
of faith have no interest for him. Friends, I have briefly outlined
a theory of atomic structure. I remarked that no one had ever seen
an atom. The human mind finds it impossible to conceive of the
minuteness of an atom, much less the minuteness of an electron, a
constituent of an atom. Yet we speak of atoms and electrons as if
we see them every day and know all about them. Is there any faith
involved in all this? The wave theory of light says the sensation
of yellow light is due to transverse waves in the ether, analogous in
form to the waves that would travel along a clothes line if one end
were fastened and the other moved rapidly up and down, except that
the train of light waves would be infinitely more rapid moving up
and down more than five hundred trillion times a second. Does
it require any imagination to see these waves? But there is more yet.
This train of waves is said to be transverse, that is, the wave travels
longitudinally, while the wave-movement is up and down. Now
a wave of this character, having the speed of light requires an ex
tremely solid medium for its propagation. The luminiferous ether,
filling all space, is said to be this solid medium. But the earth, the
stars and all the heavenly bodies move through this medium without
being slowed up in speed, without opposition. This requires that
the medium shall be a perfect fluid. Now do you have any difficulty
in picturing a medium that is at one and the same instant a perfect
solid and a perfect fluid? Does science make any demands upon
your credulity?
A story runs that Sir Isaac Newton observed a falling apple and
was thereby led to the discovery of the laws of gravitation. And
gravitation explains the motion of the moon, earth, planets and other
heavenly bodies in their course. But what explains gravitation?
We know how the earth moves in its orbit around the sun, but
do we know why it moves? The force existing between the sun and
the earth that accounts for the orbital motion of the earth is enor-
1010 IMPROVEMENT ERA
mous, there is a tremendous pull between them. Is the earth tied
to the sun? Can a pull be executed through a fluid medium, such
as the ether must be, in order that the earth shall move through it
without resistance? My friends, the reason why an apple falls is a
profound enigma. Perhaps there is nothing more mysterious in all
the world. Explain? What can science explain? We answer little,
but very little of the ultimate nature of things. But the more science
has to teach, the more wonderful, the more inexplicable we find na-
ture to be. Does religion tax your faith and imagination? Science
taxes mine every whit as much as does religion. And, as I see, the
greatest tax of all on the imagination, the greatest possible demand
on credulity, is the assumption that there is no God, to me a perfectly
impossible assumption. Even had I no faith in Deity in my boy-
hood, as I think of it, I must believe that the little study of science
that I have since made would have driven me irresistibly to a be-
lief in God.
But let us turn now to another phase of our theme. We speak
of certainties in science. Are there no corresponding certitudes in
religion? Is religion a field of belief only? The discussion of this
phase of the theme is so well done by Professor Dinsmore of Yale
University in his little book entitled Religious Certitudes in an
Age of Science that I offer no apology for quoting and paraphras-
ing very freely from the last chapter in this book. Discussing "what
we know and what we believe," Professor Dinsmore says: "In the
day of her bigotry the church asserted infallible knowledge in many
departments of interest, discrediting science as a black art, the craft
of the Devil."
But human nature is the same in the laboratory as in the pulpit,
and many scientists today are as bigoted as was ever a medieval monk.
With many of them what they do not know is not knowledge. So
prevalent is the tendency of affirm that life in all its multitudinous
activities — its moral ideals, its poetry, its soul-hunger — can be ex-
plained by a materialistic philosophy that Sir Oliver Lodge a few
years ago, in a presidential address delivered before the British Asso-
ciation, thought fit to say to his fellow-scientists:
"It is my function to remind you and myself that our studies
do not exhaust the universe, and if we dogmatize in the opposite
direction and say that we can reduce everything to physics and
chemistry, we gibbet ourselves as ludicrously narrow pedants, and
are falling short of the richness of our human birthright. Scientists,
not a few, have still to learn that the faculties and the methods they
employ are not the only road to genuine knowledge. * * *
'Humbug is humbug,' wrote William James, 'even though it bear a
scientific name.' Yet many men, both in science and out of it, who
THE REALMS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1011
are neither narrow-minded nor materialistic, are inclined to con-
fine the word 'knowledge' to the sphere of the sciences. * * *
"We claim that the difference between the results of scientific
experimentation and religious experience is but the difference be-
tween two different kinds of knowledge, each resting on faith, each
established on experimentation after its own kind. Science uses
the perceptive and the distinctively intellectual faculties in her opera-
tions; religion assumes that the heart has reasons as well as the in-
tellect, that conscience is a doorway into reality, that the imagina-
tion and the will are also pathways to truth. Religion employs a
larger portion of human nature in the discovery of truth than does
science, and she believes that she touches a wider environment. * * *
"Knowledge is to have assurance upon proper evidence that
one's mental apprehensions agree with reality. Subjectively there is
certainty, objectively there is reality; the connecting link is proper
evidence that the thought tallies with the thing.
"The conviction we are seeking to establish is that religious
experience creates a joyous certitude in the breasts of the faithful,
the certitude of the individual is repeated in a countless multitude
and issues in characters which have all the credentials of truth.
"These multiplied experiences, these substantial and radiant
characters, constitute proper evidence that the inner conviction is not
entirely alien to the outer reality. Therefore the saints as well as
the scientists are able to say: 'We know.'
"Let us ask to what degree science has knowledge. She begins
with an act of faith, faith in the general trustworthiness of the sense
perceptions, faith in those mental powers which go beyond sense ob-
servation into the region where things are intellectually discerned,
faith in an external world that is dependable and capable of inter-
pretation. By precise observation, experiment, and careful deduc-
tion she builds up a body of fact and truth which she calls knowl-
edge, and rightly so. But it is knowledge of a limited kind,
knowledge of phenomena and of modes of behavior, not of meanings,
not of ultimate realities. She uses only those aspects of reality
which she needs in her work. The laws of nature, as science de-
scribes them, represent, but are not identical with, the laws of nature
as they really are. She takes only those serviceable features of
phenomena which she can employ for her purposes. But her results
are substantial enough, and constitute a body of facts and laws suf-
ficiently valid to sustain our houses, our factories, our civilization.
"But the scientist does not cover the whole of life with his
method, or with his knowledge. The poet, the musician, the prophet
have other fields of interest; they live in a world as real as his,
a world with its actualities perceived by faculties which he does not
1012 IMPROVEMENT ERA
use, but which they are confident yield valid knowledge. They
deal not so much with facts as with values and forces, which are
spiritually discerned, which are established in confidence, not by
experiment, but by experience. We are all aware of this world
which is above sense phenomena. We are as certain of the value of
poetry as we are of Ford cars. The sighs of love have shaken men
as perceptibly as the winds of heaven. * * * A transforming
power issues from the holiness of Jesus which is as indisputable as
a volt of electricity. We are as sure of this realm of spiritual values
and forces as of the earth beneath our feet. The power of character
is as much a part of the nature of things as dynamite and can be
equally verified. Buddha, Confucius, Christ founded world civil-
izations, and the spiritual and moral energies they released are as
truly a part of the world order as the Mississippi or the Amazon.
"Spontaneously and habitually we use the word knowledge in
connection with these aesthetic and ethical experiences. * *■ *
"Most men cannot be persuaded that man can know so much
about material things and so little regarding the things which con-
cern him most. They cannot believe that this infinitely rich uni-
verse has such abundant satisfaction for their physical needs, and
nothing for their deepest spiritual necessities. Therefore, with the
yearning of a pilgrim for his distant home, they turn to the mystery
from which they emerged, and whose awful shadow encloses their
lives, to find a refuge in the day of trouble, explanation of the mean-
ing of life, and re-enforcement to meet the difficulties of the journey.
"Men need God, they trust him, they seek to learn his will and
obey him. The steps one takes in solving his religious problems are
much the same as those he takes in solving his scientific problems.
In science we trust our sense perceptions and the conclusions of our
intellect. In religion we trust our spiritual intuitions and the validity
of the claims of our moral and emotional natures. Religious faith is
our reason for acting bravely in the presence of life's gravest problems.
It is a valor of soul which makes us commit the highest in ourselves
to what we believe is the Highest in the universe.
"Now this faith upon which our religion is founded is as bold,
as rational, and as comprehensive as any scientific generalization.
Will it stand the test of experience? Can this faith prove its truth
by its effects upon life?
"If one man tries it out and finds that it will work, he will
have an inner certitude of its truth. He will say, 'I believe.' If he
finds that his experience has been repeated in ten thousand lives
which have followed the same procedure then he will exclaim, 'We
know!' Know, not all about God, but know God to the extent
that He comes into human experience, know Him as a reality be*
THE REALMS OF SCIENCE AND RELIGION 1013
cause He produces real effects. For surely virtues of highest worth
are not nurtured on what is entirely illusion.
"But religious faith sweeps farther and higher than such expe-
riences. It postulates a divine benignity which cares for the indivi-
dual, and works with boundless grace even through the wrath and
error of the world. Men in vast numbers have actually ventured
everything on the hypothesis that in living a life of love they were
reproducing in a measure the divine nature, and they have not been
put to confusion. If their faith were vain, then when they took the
leap they would have fallen into vacuity, but their concurrent testi-
mony has been that they found a Rock beneath their feet. If this
faith in a Divine Providence were a delusion, then the men who came
under its baleful influence would have deformed and brittle char-
acters. On the contrary theirs are the most firm-fibered and lustrous
characters the world has produced. Those who have sent the roots
of their being down most deeply into the faith of a divine love have
been the most revered men in history.
"Religious faith would have vanished from the world long ago,
if it had put one out of joint with the nature of things. If no help
had ever come from the unseen, the impulse to pray would long ago
have died out. The saints may be confused and confusing in their
speech about religion, but with unanimity they report the same
experience. Christians sing in twentieth century America psalms
which were written in Asia three thousand years ago. Catholics and
Protestants use the same prayers and the same hymns. Their creeds
differ, but they touch the same reality, and experience the same peace
and spiritual liberty.
"What I wish to claim is this: Science does not have knowl-
edge, and religion simply faith. The lover, the artist, the musician,
know; so does the saint. Religion has always used the word 'knowl-
edge' freely and always will, because no lesser term expresses her
experiences. Both science and religion begin with an act of faith.
Both reach results. Those of science are sufficiently verified for a
man to base his actions and his civilization upon them. Those of
religion are so tested that one can build his whole life upon them
with ever increasing satisfaction both to his mind and to his soul.
"But scientific knowledge is independent of the personal equa-
tion. A murderer can perform a chemical experiment as well as a
saint. Religion on the other hand, is more personal. Its knowledge
is conditional on character. Only the pure in heart can see God; only
the unselfish and obedient can realize His love. * * *
"But religious knowledge is superior to scientific. Science deals
with the world out there beyond us. It knows only symbols of
reality which ar? interpreted to the consciousness through the senses.
1014 IMPROVEMENT ERA
But when we deal with what takes place in our own inner nature,
we send the shaft down deeper into reality. There, if anywhere, we
surprise reality unveiled. 'By being religious,' says Professor James,
'we establish ourselves in the possession of ultimate reality at the
only point at which reality has been given us to guard.'
"Knowledge is religion's normal word. Without it her Scrip-
tures are tame, her teachings ineffectual, and her promises pallid. 'If
any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teachers;' 'Ye
shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.' 'This is
life eternal to know thee, the only living and true God and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent.' 'Every one therefore which heareth
these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise
man which built his house upon the rock.' Religion is indeed con-
ceived in faith, but, 'The steps of faith fall on a seeming void, and
find the rock beneath.'
And now in conclusion may I be pardoned a word of personal
testimony? I am persuaded to give it only because it fits so aptly
with what I have just read. Away back in early adulthood, as a boy
of nineteen, I had a blessed experience that I never can forget as long
as memory and reason shall last. Between ten and eleven o'clock
one August night I was engaged in most earnest and devout prayer,
when suddenly in reply there came to me a wonderful spiritual mani-
festation. From that moment until this, I too have always been
able to say truthfully, "I know."
Warning Against Losing Old Faiths
"The immensity of possible discovery contrasts with our feebleness in putting
it into words. For that reason never throw away hastily any old faith or traditions
because of some dogma of science: do not run foul of conventions merely because
you do not see the good of them.
"The problems do not get easier as the world grows older. The extraordinary
multiplicity of plants and animals is astounding. What an imagination the Creator
must have had! Our growth of knowledge of the planetary system shows that every-
thing is governed by one system of law.
"Real existence is a much wider thing than terrestrial existence. We are mistaken
in believing that life can exist only for material bodies. It can exist, perhaps better,
with immaterial things.
"There are many persons who formerly lived on this planet and who still hover
close to us. They retain many of the attributes that they once had here. The dead are not
dead, but alive. They have bodies, but not of matter, what I may call spiritual bodies.
They are clothed, but not with material clothing.
"Mankind came on to the earth very recently, so its corporate blunders are the
mistakes of infancy. Our squabbles are like those of children in a nursery but they
are deadly and I hope we will have no more of them. They tend to destroy civiliza-
tion."— Sir Oliver Lodge.
October in Southern Utah
By Kenneth S. Bennion
NE would think, to watch cars
along the highway, that just
about everybody spends the
summer touring. Of course, some of
us have to stay home and work to sup-
port the vacationists, burglarize their
houses, haul away the watermelon
rinds on Monday morning, keep the
home fires burning under the copper
kettles, and the wheels of industry
moving generally. But we all admit
that sitting under a steering wheel and
watching the road unwind is just
about the ideal life — for awhile, at
least. None of us would think of
turning down an opportunity to "take
a trip," any time, anywhere, for any
reason whatsoever. If the road is fair,
the weather dry enough so that one
can change tires without getting wet,
and if the car "percolates" all right,
the trip is the best ever, and the scenery just grand.
But of all the trips a person may take, one of the most inviting
is that leading down the Arrowhead Trail from Salt Lake City to
Utah's Dixie, in the sunny, hazy days of October. There is some-
thing unusually charming in this mid-autumn season. The valleys
are brimming with rich harvests of the year, the trees are still in full
foliage, and the mountains are gloriously decorated in the gayest
of colors. At this transition point between summer and winter, the
weather is most delightful, and the out-of-doors most appealing.
Recently a neighbor of mine decided to celebrate his ninth
wedding anniversary (he called it his paper plate wedding) by
taking a belated honeymoon. I was invited to go along as official
tire changer, and, after looking over the big, comfortable sedan with
its five good balloons, I accepted. His wife sat in the back seat where
she could take full and complete charge of the youngsters, — two
small boys, — offer bits of advice as to how the driving should not
have been done, and where she could prepare and pass forward sand-
Watching the road unwind.
1016 IMPROVEMENT ERA
wiches, cake, chocolates, etc., from time to time as the occasion, or
one of us, demanded. A most happy arrangement, indeed!
As the town slid away behind us and we neared the south end
of the valley, the mountains on our left drew toward us, their
rugged slopes clothed in brilliant autumn colors, and their summits
lipped with snow. The bare, jagged walls of Lone Peak were
softened somewhat by the Indian summer haze. In Utah valley we
passed by the base of Timpanogos. The whole mountain was white
to the foothills, its summit shining in the sunlight above a thin
cloud mantle.
Along the highway here, we met bands of sheep, coming down
from the higher summer ranges, headed for the desert. The old
ewes in lead remembered the salt sages of the winter range, and were
leading the herds at a half trot.
In Provo, a boy on a bicycle suddenly swung across directly in
front of the car. Thanks to four-wheel brakes he passed on, unhurt.
He flung us a scared smile over his shoulder and hurried away.
The fine, paved highway winds through miles of productive
farms and gardens; then it climbs a low divide and drops down into
Juab valley, to the little town of Mona, at the foot of Mt. Nebo.
This mountain is one of the highest in the Wasatch range. Its triple
peaks rise abruptly out of the valley to a height of about 12,000
feet above sea level. On this day its western face presented a wilder-
ness of slide rock above the timber-line, and a riot of autumn colors
below. A few weeks later I passed it again. It was white as marble
from top to bottom, with occasional crags jutting through the snow-
mantle, like the tusks of ancient monsters. A wild wind swept
across its peaks, and plumes of drifting snow streamed far out from
its knife-like ridges.
Just south of Nebo, in Salt Creek canyon, the Wasatch Range
really comes to an end. From there on is a new formation, with
reddish-colored rocks. These rocks have colored a bright red the
fertile farming lands of the valley. At the mouth of the canyon lies
the beautiful town of Nephi, surrounded by some of the richest
dry-farming lands of Utah.
At Nephi we secured a road map and a sandwich, and then
turned southwestward, across the valley, following very closely the
plainly visible road of the pioneer settlers of southern Utah. A few
miles out we had our first flat tire. While we were putting on the
spare, one of the small boys got the tire pump and began vigorously
pumping up a dust in the road.
"Hey there, Tony!" called the other, "quit wasting all that
good air!"
OCTOBER IN SOUTHERN UTAH 1017
At the Uba dam on the Sevier river we rested the car and
stretched our legs. The water in the reservoir, which earlier in the
season is backed up for twenty miles, was very low, and the river
was unusually small.
Scipio, the next point of interest, is a farming and stockraising
town, lying in a peculiar, circular valley that has no drainage outlet.
The town was settled early in Utah's history, and many of the fine
old pioneer homes, two-story brick and adobe structures, are still in
use, picturesque monuments to the skill and industry of those early
settlers. Beyond the town, the old road is very plainly marked, as it
winds over a steep pass out of the valley. Now a wonderful high-
way carries the car easily up an even grade, over the summit, and
down the long road to Holden, in the Pahvant valley.
This is one of the largest valleys in Utah. The mountains
on the farther side almost fade from sight in the blue haze of the
desert. The Indian name signifies "vanished waters," and refers
to the shore lines and sand bars of Lake Bonneville, and to the dried-
up bed of the Sevier river, which once flowed through the valley into
Salt Lake. The great farming district of Delta, including half a
dozen towns, occupies but a small fraction of the valley. Holden,
Fillmore, Meadow, and Kanosh lie along the foot of the eastern
mountains.
From these towns on the country somehow begins to have
the "feel" of southern Utah. It becomes a little more picturesque,
a little more romantic. After a half-hour's drive along a splendid
highway through the cedar-covered hills at the south end of the
valley, we rounded a point and came into view of Cove Fort. This
interesting landmark was built by the early settlers as the half-way
camping place between the Pahvant settlements and Beaver. Oxen
could not make the whole trip in one day, and in that country there
were then a great many rather unfriendly Indians. The high stone
walls of the fort are very thick. A row of narrow loop-holes ex-
tends around the four sides, up near the top. There is a wide en-
trance in the east side, through which wagons could be driven into
the enclosed courtyard. A small, narrow exit was provided in the
west wall, in case the Indians should break through the great wooden
doors of the main entrance. Rooms were built along the north,
south, and part of the west sides. A well was dug in the center of
the court. The whole arrangement reminded me of an old fort
of Napoleon's at Brest. The latter was an improvised delousing
plant when I was an inmate.
Cove Fort has recently been purchased by some Eastern people,
and converted into a "dude ranch" for tourists. Perhaps, some day
1018
IMPROVEMENT ERA
the state will take steps to preserve it as a monument to the early
settlers.
We left the fort and hurried on southward, through the cedars.
The sun was hanging low above Mineral range and we had a long
way yet to go. At the south end of this valley, the road was lined
with clumps of brilliantly colored maples, with dark-green oaks and
cedars between. On a little knoll by the side of the road, a band of
sheep was bedding down for the night. A thin thread of gray smoke
rose from the camp wagon, and horses tied to the wheels of the
commissary munched in their feed-bags. The whole scene called
up poignant memories of canned tomatoes, mutton chops, red-hot
sourdough biscuits and syrup.
We pulled into Beaver just at dusk and stopped at a restaurant
for supper. As we ate, we listened to the clever banter of a party
of tourists at the next table. There had been tire trouble on the
Granite rock carved out by the drifting desert sand from Pahvant Valley
way, and they had had to get a new tire. A sympathetic fellow-
traveler contributed a dollar toward the cause, and offered to take
up a collection from everyone in the room. At this critical point
a party of Mexicans came in and became the focus of attention.
One of them looked like Villa himself, and we wondered whether
that famous bandit had really been killed, or whether the job had
yet to be done.
At eight o'clock we were on the road again, and after a few
miles of winding over cedar-lined curves and dugways, we rolled
OCTOBER IN SOUTHERN UTAH 1019
down a long hollow, around a point, and into a wide valley. The
lights of Paragoonah and of Parowan flickered in the distance.
Parowan has installed a new street-lighting system, and has reason
to feel proud of herself. We drove through the town, passing with
reluctance the road leading to beautiful Parowan canyon and Cedar
Breaks. At ten o'clock we pulled into Cedar City, everybody, in-
cluding the driver, about ninety per cent asleep. "El Escalante"
surely looked like home.
At 7:30 the next morning we breakfasted on hot cakes and
casawbas. A young fellow across the room unconsciously created
quite a flutter among the waitresses. He looked like a college foot-
ball player, a movie star, and a bashful country boy, all rolled into
one. He possessed thick, black hair, a shirt of many colors, and
a cool, quiet manner. We saw him later, leaving for parts unknown
in a big, new roadster.
We tanked up with gas, oil, water, and pine nuts, and left the
main-traveled roads, heading westward, toward the Escalante desert.
The road led for many miles through rolling hills, heavily timbered
with cedars and pinion pines. Then we reached a more arid country.
The timber gave way to brush and grass, and the hills fell away
to open valleys and low, desert ranges. Along the way, the driver
told us the story of a lost gold mine that had really never been
found. The story runs somewhat like this:
A few winters ago, one of the prominent sheepmen of Cedar
City hired a young fellow to herd one of his bands of sheep out
among these very desert hills through which we were passing. The
boy was gone all winter, and when he returned in the spring and
received his wages, went north to work in Wyoming. Just before
leaving, he pulled a few pieces of rock from his pocket and gave
them to his employer, saying that he had found them out on one of
the mountains during the winter. He said they probably weren't
any good, but that they looked rather interesting. The sheepman
shoved them out of his way and out of his mind. Some months later
he happened to come across them again and gave them a careful
examination. Immediately he sent them to an assayer, and in a few
days received the returns, showing that the samples carried gold
worth some $65,000 a ton! At once he began a frantic search for
the young sheepherder, and for the ledge from which the samples
were taken. To date, neither has been found.
We resolved to bring a camp outfit here and comb the country
from end to end in an attempt to find the gold — "some day."
We crossed a low divide, passed through the little town of New-
castle, and skirted the southeastern edge of Escalante valley to
1020 IMPROVEMENT ERA
Hamblin creek. There we wandered over the alfalfa and potato
fields of a large ranch that was for sale and then drove into Enter-
prise. This town was a pleasant surprise in such a great, dry coun-
try. It is situated among fertile fields, and boasts electric lights,
telephone, waterworks, modern homes, and a fine new school house.
From here we turned south, climbing through rolling hills to
the divide, a few miles from the town. This divide marks the
southern rim of the Great Basin, in Utah. Water falling on the
north side of the rim runs into the desert, where it evaporates or
sinks, but that on the south side finds its way into the Colorado.
We met a picturesque old-timer in the dugway here. His buck-
board, mules, and whole make-up suggested the "early days." His
outfit would have looked far more appropriate on the old road of the
emigrants, still deeply carved in the canyon below us, than on the
smooth, graded highway that connects southwestern Utah with the
railroad.
The road crosses a little valley, climbs another divide, and
drops down to the little, scattered farming community of Central.
The hills are heavily wooded with cedars, pines, quaking aspens,
cottonwoods, and willows. Off to the eastward rises the massive
bulk of Pine Valley Mountain, recently dedicated as a national
monument. Pine valley, in the heart of the mountain, is one of the
State's most attractive summer resorts.
Beyond Central the road drops down to a narrow, wilder part
of the valley and crosses the Santa Clara. A fine steel bridge
spans the gorge that is cut deep down through the black lava. A
great pine tree growing in the edge of the plunging, boiling torrent
below reaches just under the level of the bridge. From here the
road climbs a narrow dugway, cut out of solid lava, and then rounds
the shoulder of a hill and comes out onto a plateau — the top of the
world!
No wonder the early settlers remember always the "forbidding
aspects of the country!" As far as the eye can see, east, south and
west, the whole region is a wild jumble of mountains and canyons.
Black lava is everywhere. Volcanic cones rise above the plateau
so black and perfect that one looks expectantly for smoke and ashes
to burst forth from them. The plateau drops away abruptly to
the southward, down to the valley of the Virgin river, far below.
Beyond this river rise great colored mesas, and toward the southwest
the river passes through still wilder country on its way to join the
Colorado. How the pioneers ever traveled through this region be-
fore the days of steel and dynamite is a mystery. But they did
make their way, and down in the fertile, semi-tropical valleys, below
OCTOBER IN SOUTHERN UTAH
1021
<*f
S^i^&M
One of the Blue Pyramids, no man's land, south of Bryce Canyon.
the barren lava beds with their all-but-impassable gorges, they
founded a paradise of farms and gardens, cities and towns. Now a
beautiful highway winds over the mountains, spans the gorges, and
elbows down the plateau. Over this road we rolled along, down
over a bluff and into St. George, sleeping under the warm, after-
noon sun. We had left a land of snowy mountains and falling
leaves, but here it was still mid-summer.
St. George is a garden spot in the heart of a terrible land. It
seems that here nature tries to atone for the great stretches of waste
land, dry plateaus, barren mesas, and rock-walled canyons of the
surrounding region, and every foot of ground yields abundantly.
The great, snow-white temple rises impressively from among dark-
green, semi-tropical trees. The wide, shady streets are lined with
comfortable, well-kept houses. Pioneer homes of rock and adobe
stand side by side with modern bungalows. Lawns are bordered
with pomegranate trees, giant tamaracks, and other trees, vines, and
shrubbery, most of which do not grow on the north side of the
"Rim of the Basin," a few miles distant. Incidentally, the people
there, who are nearly all pioneers or their immediate descendants, are
as interesting as the city itself.
At dusk, just as the lights were beginning to gleam among the
trees, we left St. George, once more on the Arrowhead Trail, but
1022 IMPROVEMENT ERA
this time headed northeast. Almost immediately we left the river
valley and began climbing innumerable dugways. The lights of the
car showed a white roadway with a wall on one side and a black
void on the other. As we raced along, the driver recounted a wild
shooting tale of the days when Silver Reef was one of the West's
most famous mining camps. The tale concerned the sudden, com-
plete, and well-merited demise of the town's most notorious citizen.
Leaving the mountains and the "ghost town," we passed
through some small valleys, each with its scattered ranches and
communities. Then presently we took to dugways again. These
wound around so much that all sense of direction was lost. The
driver, who had been silent for a long time, very sleepily informed
us that over the edge of the road and somewhere down below was
the Virgin river. Comforting thought, with a sleepy driver! He
became a little alarmed at one point, when the car showed a tendency
to dive off into space, and he began to sing to keep awake. He sang
all the songs he knew, and some he didn't. He made a speech, told
jokes, and then burst into song again. He said it was quite a strain
to drive when he was so sleepy, but it was as much of a strain for
me to sit mile after mile in tense anticipation of the moment when
I would have to grab the wheel and jerk the car back from the edge
of the dugway.
Meanwhile the skyline began to rise on both sides of us, until
only a narrow band of stars shone overhead, and then the road
dropped down from the dugway to the canyon floor. Finally, just
after midnight, we rolled up to the Zion Park Lodge, at the foot of
an immense cloud of rock, "El Sentinel," and called it a day.
The next morning we were up in time to see the sunlight strike
the tops of the canyon wall, and we drove up to the end of the
road at the Narrows. I tried to write something descriptive of the
canyon, but gave it up. We took a few snapshots, but even this
seemed rather futile. For immensity, grandeur, and majesty of
workmanship, the mighty-walled canyon is beyond anything that
has yet been said of it, or any picture that has attempted to portray
it. Reluctantly we turned back down the highway over which we
had traveled so nervously the night before. Our road led down the
Virgin river, then over the hills to the main highway, and north-
ward to Cedar City.
At Cedar we replenished the commissary, gave the car a fresh
supply of oil, and started up the canyon toward Cedar Breaks. Cedar
canyon itself is very picturesque. Great rocks rise hundreds of feet
above the stream bed, and in some cases they completely overhang the
highway. The road is good, but steep, rising from 5000 feet above
sea level in the valley to 10,400 feet at the rim of the Breaks, twenty
OCTOBER IN SOUTHERN UTAH 1023
miles away. The canyon was gorgeously colored with autumn
leaves, and as we approached the summit we saw occasional patches
of fresh snow. A blue haze rested over the hills and softened down
the rugged outlines of the peaks.
The road climbs out of Cedar canyon and circles the south side
of a high mountain. For a few miles here it crosses the headwaters
of the Virgin. Far down through the haze, some thirty miles away,
we could see where the river cuts through the rocks in Zion Park,
and could even make out the Narrows and the Great White Throne.
Far away in the southwest Pine Valley Mountain stood out boldly
on the horizon. We took a last look and then drove on through
endless groves of white-boled quaking aspen the leaves of which had
nearly all fallen. The mountain seemed deserted. There was practic-
ally no traffic on the road, we saw no animals, and everything was
still. Snow patches increased as we climbed, though the highway
was still quite dry and hard.
The road swings around to the northward through beautiful
park-like meadows and groves, enters a thick clump of pine trees and
then without warning emerges on the very rim of the Breaks. The
thrill of that first breath-taking view seems to increase with each
visit there. Cedar Breaks is a mighty amphitheatre of brilliant colors
and grotesque forms set in one of the most beautiful forests of Utah.
It is a region of mystery and romance utterly beyond description.
The sun was sinking low in the west, casting weird shadows among
the castles, caves, and images of the canyon. We still had far to go
so we turned eastward over the "Angels' Highway," where forests,
meadows, lakes, streams, and canyons provide a paradise of scenery.
At ten o'clock we reached Bryce Canyon Lodge, hungry, tired,
and sleepy. It was the last night of the season there and nearly
everything was closed. Therefore we had to turn in without supper.
The next morning we took a most chilly visit to the rim of the
canyon to watch the "Silent City" at sunrise. The sight was worth
the chill. I climbed down the Navajo Trail and got plenty of thrills
prowling among the red gorges, gloomy passageways and grotesque
monuments. I found a registry book down in the canyon and
signed my name next that of T. Watson of Belfast, Ireland. While
I was getting a picture of a great, cathedral-like aisle, my feet went
out from under me and I ripped an eighth-inch hole in one trouser
leg before I brought up against a jutting rock down the slope. The
canyon appears to be carved out of soft, red clay; but it isn't.
By nine o'clock we remembered that we had had no supper the
night before, so we left the canyon and headed for Panguitch and
breakfast, twenty-six miles away. At ten-thirty, feeling much better,
we pulled out for Salt Lake City, two hundred and seventy-five
1024 IMPROVEMENT ERA
miles to the northward. At the Piute Dam we picked up a tack. At
Richfield we could get no ice cream, so we drove hurriedly on to
Salina. Here we saw a small group of people seated in chairs on
the sidewalk listening to a radio sermon. On the other side of the
street a much larger crowd was following the progress of a World's
Series game. We patronized each place for a few minutes.
An inventory of our combined financial resources showed a
credit balance of fifty cents. We debated as to whether we should
buy gasoline or ice cream. The affirmative, upheld by two small
boys, won unanimously. From there on the trip was without
incident, except that just a hundred yards south of the first service
station in Salt Lake valley the car ran out of gas. An obliging
station attendant came running and helped push us in. He filled the
tank, recklessly accepted a check, and our four-day trip in the golden
days of autumn was over.
My Homeland
Oh, take me back to Utah
Where I can in peace abide,
Away from strife, and quakes, and storms,
And angry rushing tides.
Let me see again the canyons grand
Where the "purest streamlets" flow,
And taste the waters, clear and sweet,
Just off the glistening snow.
Let me see again my mountain home
And camp beside the streams,
And live again the olden times.
As were pictured in my dreams.
I want to stroll on hillsides there
Where the purest breezes blow,
And gather again the mountain flowers
Where the sego lillies grow.
And with the splendor of setting sun.
Will my eyes again be blest,
*\s it sinks beneath the inland sea
In a halo of perfect rest.
Then, when I take my last, long stroll,
To my final place of rest,
Let it be upon the hillside there,
To be numbered with the blest.
R. C. SAVAGE
Turning the Washington Monument
Inside Out
By Robert Sparks Walker
LANDING at the base of the
Washington Monument
on a hot morning in Aug-
ust, I thought my visit was
surely ruined upon learning that
the elevator was temporarily out
of business, and that to reach the
top I would have to go on foot.
However, being accustomed
to hiking on level ground, also to
climbing mountains, I set out on
this task with kodak and coat
under my arm. But misfortunes
nearly always have their com-
pensations. I knew that at each
landing were memorial stones,
presented by various states and
organizations, for I had on pre-
vious trips curiously peeped
from the moving elevator, and
caught sight of them here and
there as we moved slowly up or
down. But they meant little to me, because I had had no oppor-
tunity of reading and studying them carefully.
Before reaching the thirtieth-foot landing, I saw that this
monument was like a well filled nut, and that the tens of thou-
sands of people who visit it annually are passing the kernels by
unnoticed; and I made up my mind to turn this huge structure
inside out as a penalty for being forced to ascend it on foot on
a very hot summer day.
On the 30th-foot landing are seven memorial stones. The
first, inscribed "Maine," I thought is very fitting, since Maine is
our remotest northeastern state. Delaware comes second with this
inscription, "First to Adopt. Will Be the Last to Desert the Con-
stitution, 1849." Arkansas claims the third, and the fourth is a
contribution from the Little Falls Quarry of D. C. The fifth was
The Washington Monument
1026 IMPROVEMENT ERA
presented by the Franklin Fire Co., of Washington, D. C, with
this slogan inscribed, "We strive to save." A good motto for
every American! The sixth was presented by the National Greys,
of Washington, D. C, while the seventh says: "Presented by George
Watterston, Secretary Washington National Monument Society, as
a testimonial of His Gratitude and Veneration, A. D. 1849."
By this time, I was deeply interested, for, while enjoying the
great outdoors we find sermons in running brooks, in trees and
stones, here were sermons literally carved in stone by the hands of
men.
At the 40th landing, stone No. 1 is inscribed, "Nashville,
Tennessee." That stone attracted my attention, for it came from
the capital of my home state. No. 2 is credited to the state of
Louisiana with this declaration, "Ever faithful to the Constitution
and the Union." No. 3, from Alabama, says, "A Union of Equality
Adjusted by the Constitution." No. 4 was presented by the Ger-
man Benevolent Society of Washington, D. C, with this tribute,
"As a memento of the veneration of its members for the 'Father
of his country.' " No. 5, from the Association of Journeymen Stone
Cutters of Philadelphia, "United We Stand." No. 6 was presented
by the Columbia Typographical Society, "As a memento of the
veneration of its members for the 'Father of his country.' '
On the 50th-foot landing: No. 1, from Indiana, says, "Knows
No North, No South, Nothing but the Union." No. 2, "State of
Georgia. The Union as it was. The Constitution as it is." No. 3,
from Illinois, declares, "State Sovereignity, National Union." No.
4 is from the Washington Naval Lodge, No. 5 from the Grand
Lodge of Masons, D. C, "Our Brother George Washington." No.
6 represents the Washington Light Infantry.
The 60th-foot landing has a stone from South Carolina, one
from New Hampshire, one from Florida, and one from West-
moreland county, Virginia, inscribed, "The Birth Place of Wash-
ington." The fifth stone, from the I. O. O. F. Grand Lodge of the
Odd Fellows of the state of N. J., has this inspiring motto, "We
command you to visit the sick, relieve the distressed, bury the dead,
and educate the orphans." The sixth stone is inscribed, "Presented
by Anacostia Tribe, No. 3, I. O. R. M., D. C, on the 3rd Sun
of the 3 x 7 Suns Worm Moon G. S. 5610."
The 70th-foot landing has a stone from New Jersey, one from
Massachussetts, one from Connecticut, one from "Grand Di-
vision, S. T., North Carolina. Love, Purity, Fidelity," one from
the "United Sons of America, Pennsylvania," and a stone
TURNING THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT INSIDE OUT 1027
from the Grand Divisions, Sons of Temperance, State of Virginia,
] 850, "Hand in hand. Union."
No. 1 on the 80th-foot landing says, "Virginia Who Gave
Washington to America Gives this Granite for His Monument."
No. 2, "The City of Washington to Its Founder." No. 3, "Mary-
land. The Memorial of Her Regard for the Father of His Country
and of Her Cordial, Habitual and Immovable Attachment to the
American Union." The fourth stone is from the Invincible Fire Co.,
Cincinnati, O., the fifth from "R. W. Grand Lodge of I. O. O. F.,
Indiana. In God We Trust, Constitutional Liberty, F. L. T. The
Earth for Its Domain and Eternity for Its Duration." The sixth
stone says, "To George Washington by the Maryland Pilgrims As-
sociation. Organized, Balto, 1847."
On the 90th-foot landing, the first stone I read bore this in-
scription: "The Tribute of Missouri to the Memory of Washington
and a Pledge of Her Fidelity to the Union of the States." Another
stone says, "The State of Ohio. The Memory of Washington and
the Union of the States. Sunte Perpetua." A third one reads, "The
State of Mississippi to the Father of His Country, A. D. 1850." The
fourth stone is from Little Rock. Arkansas. The fifth from the Odd
Fellows of Ohio, and the sixth is from the Mechanics of Raleigh,
N. C.
On the lOOth-foot landing, Wisconsin claims the first stone
met, while North Carolina has one inscribed, "Declaration of In-
dependence. Mecklenburg, May, 1775. 'Constitution.' " The third
says, " 'Hope, Rhode Island.' ' The Grand Lodge, I. O. O. F. of
Virginia has one, and the fifth one is inscribed, "From the home of
Knox by citizens of Thomaston, Maine," while the sixth stone is
inscribed, "To the Father of His Country. Presented by the Inde-
pendent Order of United Brothers of the State of Maryland, A. D.
1851."
On the HOth-foot landing the first stone reads, "Nov. 12,
1 852. From the Postmasters and Assistant Postmasters of the State
of Indiana. Dedicated to the Washington Monument, Washington.
May His Principles be Distributed Broadcast Over the Land." Iowa
certainly had a Psalmist, for the second stone is inscribed, "Iowa. Her
Affections, Like the Rivers of Her Borders, flow to an Inseparable
Union." The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the
State of New York is credited with a stone, and the fourth one reads,
"By the Grand Lodge of Kentucky to the Memory of Washington,
the Christian Mason." No. 5 simply says, "Peter Force." The sixth
stone is from the Grand Lodge of Ohio.
On the 120th-foot landing the first stone encountered reads,
1028 IMPROVEMENT ERA
"From the City of Frederick, Md." The next, from California,
makes pleasing reading: "California, Youngest Sister of the Union,
Brings Her Golden Tribute to the Memory of Its Father." The third
stone is from "The City of Roxbury, Mass. The birthplace of Gen.
Joseph Warren." The fourth is from "S. of T. R. I.," whatever that
means. The fifth stone is from various I. O. of O. F. Lodges, Ger-
mantown, Pa., and the sixth stone is from "Patmos Lodge No. 20,
iMasons, Ellicott Mills, Md."
The 130th-foot landing has first stone credited to "I. O. O. F.,
Mass." The second stone, "American Whig Society, College of N. J.,
Princeton. A tribute to Washington." The third stone, "Corpora-
tion of the City of New York, 1852." The fourth stone is from
"American Institute of the City of New York," the fifth, "Union
Society, Hillsborough, N. C," the sixth from the Sons of Temper-
ance, State of Connecticut. The seventh stone reads, "From the
Alumni of Washington College, at Lexington, Va. The Only College
Endowed by the Father of His Country." Another stone is inscribed,
"Oakland College, Miss., 1851." The ninth stone is from the Masons
of Maryland, the tenth from Washington Lodge, of the City of New
York. Another bears the inscription, "Durham, New Hampshire."
The twelfth stone is from "Mount Lebanon Lodge No. 226, A. Y.
M., Lebanon, Pa."
The first stone on the 140th-foot landing is from D. O.
Hitner's Quarry, Norristown, Pa., the second from the Grand Lodge
of Masons of the State of Alabama. No. 3 may be regarded as a
prayer by the City of Baltimore: "May Heaven To This Union
Continue Its Benificence; May brotherly affection with union be
perpetual; May the Free Constitution which is the work of our an-
cestors be sacredly maintained, and its administration be stamped
with wisdom and with virtue." The next stone is engraved,
"Prosunt Omnibus. Grand Lodge of Georgia." Number 5 is from
New York, presented by Masterton and Smith, of Westchester
county. The sixth stone is from "Masonic Grand Lodge, of 111.,
1853." Number 7 is inscribed, "From Fort Greene, Battle Ground
of Long Island. A Tribute from the Ft. Greene Guard of Brooklyn,
1854." Number 8 reads, "From Otter's Summit, Virginia's loft-
iest peak, to crown a monument to Virginia's noblest son." Num-
ber 9 is from Co. I, 4th Regiment Infantry, U. S. A. Number 10
contains the names of seven men of the Engineers 2nd Division,
James River and Kano Canal.
The first stone on the 160-foot landing is from the Lafayette
Lodge, F. A. M., New York City; the next stone, "Warren, R. I.
Hope." Number 3 is from the Athenian Lodge, I. O. O. F., Troy,
N. Y., the next from Newark, N. J., while number 5 is simply en-
TURNING THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT INSIDE OUT 1029
graved, "New York, 'Excelsior.' ' Number 6 was presented by the
Eureka Lodge, I. O. O. F., City of New York.
Washington Lodge, of F. and A. M., Roxbury, Mass., claims
the first memorial stone on the 170th-foot landing; New Bedford,
Mass., the next; while number 3 reads, "Charlestown. The Bunker
Hill Battle Ground." The next is from Salem, Mass. Number 5,
reads, "Sicut Patribus Sit Deus Nobis. Civitatis Regimine Donata
A. D. 1822. Bostonia. Condita. A. D. 1630." Vermont claims
the last, emphasizing "Freedom and Unity."
The first stone on the 180th-foot landing, from the I. O. of
O. F., of the city and county of Philadelphia, closes with, "in Com-
memoration of the Devoted Patriotism, the exalted virtue and the
illustrious deeds of him whose memory is an adamantine link in the
National Union." Stone 2 says, "The Surest safeguard of the
liberty of our country is total abstinence from all that intoxicates.
Sons of Temperance of Pennsylvania." The 3rd stone is from the
Grand Lodge of Penn., A. Y. M. Number 4 is inscribed, "Declara-
tion of Independence, Philadelphia, July 4th, 1776. Corporation of
the City of Philadelphia." The fifth stone is thus voiced: " 'Liberty,
Independence, Virtue,' Pennsylvania. Founded 1681. By Deeds of
Peace."
Foreign admirers of George Washington took possession of the
190th-foot landing as follows: "Presented by the Governor and
Commune of the Islands of Paros and Naxos, Grecian Archipelago,
Aug. 13th, 1855." The second stone is carved, "Turkey;" No. 3,
"Bremen;" No. 4, "Brazil, 1878;" 5. "Siam;" 6. "Greece;"
7, "To the Memory of Washington. The Free Swiss Confedera-
tion. MDCCCLII."
West Virginia donated the first stone with this inscription for
the 200th-foot landing: "Tuum Nos Sumus Monumentum;" Rich-
mond, Virginia the second, and the St. John's Lodge, F. A. M., Rich-
mond, Va., the third. No. 4 from theG. L. of the U. S., 1852, gives
a command about visiting the sick, burying the dead, etc. No. 5
is from the Grand Lodge of Md., I. O. O. F., and No. 6 is from the
Masonic Lodge of Virginia, closing with, "Lo! she gave to this
Republic the chief corner stone." The givers of number 7, were
they alive today, would soon find themselves in the toils of the
law if they violated the pledge they made on their gift; viz: "From
the Templars of Honor and Temperance. Organized Dec. 5, 1845.
'Truth, Love, Purity, and Fidelity.' Our Pledge: 'We will not
make, buy, sell or use as a beverage any spiritous or malt liquors,
wine, cider, or any other alcoholic liquor, and will discountenance
their manufacture, traffic and use, and this pledge we will maintain
1030
IMPROVEMENT ERA
unto the end of life. Supreme Council of the Templars of Honor
and Temperance, 1846."
The West and South own the 210th-foot landing memorial
stones. The first one encountered heralds, "Kansas. Kansas Ter-
ritory. Organized May 30, 1851. State admitted January 29,
1861." The Grand Lodge of Ancient Free Masons of the State of
Arkansas give number 2, and number 3 was donated by the Grand
Lodge of the State of Miss. Number 4 is from "I. O. O. F. Grand
on behalf of the Sons of Temperance of Illinois, Jan. 1, 1855," while
the Grand Division of Ohio Sons of Temperance contributed the
next stone. No. 7 is inscribed, "Michigan. An emblem of her trust
in the Union." The last stone, number 8. is from the Grand Lodge,
A. F. and A. M., of Iowa, 1876.
mB i %-♦
i
Wjtutyti
h A^L^I
The Potomac river, the Lincoln Memorial and the reflecting Pool, as seen from the
top of the Washington Monument
Having been born in the old Cherokee country in the South
and in a wooden building whose logs were hewn out by Cherokees,
I paid considerable attention to the first stone on the 220th-foot
landing; viz: "Cherokee Nation, 1850." Wonderful, that a na-
tion of savage Indians had advanced in so short a time that they
appreciated the character and patriotism of George Washington. The
next stone came from the State of Oregon. No. 3 states, "Montana.
'Oro y Plata.' ''' Minnesota gave the next, and the fifth is inscribed,
"Holiness to the Lord. Deseret. (Utah)." The next stone says,
"Tribute from Wyoming Territory. To the Memory of Him Who
By Universal Consent Was Chief Among the Founders of the Re-
TURNING THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT INSIDE OUT 1 CHI
public." The next is a Japanese Memorial Stone, and the eighth is
a Chinese Memorial Stone, while Nebraska claims the next, adding,
"Equality Before the Law." Number 10 reads, "All for our coun-
try. Nevada, 1881."
At the 230th-foot landing I made two rich discoveries, and
here I rested for a long time. The first stone came from my native
state and is engraved, "Tennessee. The Federal Union, it must be pre-
served." The next stone came from the Grand Lodge of the State of
Florida, and memorial stone number 3 from Hawkins county, Tenn.
Number 4 is inscribed, "Georgia Convention, 1850, 'Wisdom, Jus-
tice, Moderation.' " The next stone is patriotic in its declaration:
"Under the auspices of Heaven and the Precepts of Washington,
Kentucky will be the last to give up the Union. 'United we stand,
Divided we fall.' M. Pruden, 1851." The sixth stone, from the
Grand Lodge of I. O. O. F., of Kentucky, says, "In Union There
is Strength."
The first stone my eyes met on the 240th-foot landing was
inscribed, "Presented by the United American Mechanics, Pa." The
next stone has this inscription, "Presented by the Association of
the Oldest Inhabitants of the District of Columbia, July 4th, 1 870."
Stone number 3 reads. "Wales. Fy Iatth, Fy Negivlad, Fy nghenedl.
Cyrnry am byth." The next stone from Braddock's Field bore an
inscription far more easily understood than the one that preceded it.
Stone number 5 is from the Battle Ground, Long Island, and the
next one is from the Improved Order of Red Men, of D. C. The
next stone has this inscription, "The General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in session in
Washington City, May, 1852." The 8th and last stone on this
floor says, "American Medical Association. Instituted MDCCC-
XLVII. Vincit Amor Patriae." *""""—
The 250th-foot landing starts out with this inscribed stone:
"The Young Men's Mercantile Library Association of Cincinnati.
Organized A. D. 1805. A. D. 1853. 2,400 members. Proud to
honor Washington, Contributes its humble quota to the swelling
tide of National Gratitude. Ohio — First born of the ordinance of
'87. Every pulsation of the heart beats high, beats strong, for liberty
and the Union." The next stone is a tribute from the teachers of
the Buffalo public schools, and the third stone is from the women of
Lowell, Mass. The next stone was presented by the proprietors
of the Cincinnati Commercial, 1850. The fifth stone was a gift
from the citizens of Stockton, Calif., while the sixth came from
the citizens of the United States of America who were at that time
residing in Foo Chow Foo, China. The next stone lists the names
of the Engine, Hose, and Hook-and-Ladder Companies of Phila-
1032 IMPROVEMENT ERA
delphia, and stone number 8 is from the Fire Department of Phila-
delphia, 1854. Number 9 is also a gift from a Fire and Hose Com-
pany. The tenth stone has this inscription: "Washington, N. C,
Thalian Association."
The first memorial stone on the 260th-foot landing stares at
you with this inscription: "Cincinnati Company. Our War is
With the Elements." The pupils of the public schools of the city
of Baltimore contributed stone number 2, while the third discloses
this fact: "Washington Erina Guard, Newark, N. J." Number
4 came from a Sunday School and bears this information: "From
the Sabbath School Children of the Methodist E. Church in the
city and districts of Philadelphia. 4th July, 1853. A preached
Gospel. A Free Press. Washington — We revere his memory.
Search the Scriptures. Suffer little children to come unto me and
forbid them not for of such is the Kingdom of God. — Luke xviii: 16.
Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he
will not depart from it. — Prov. xxii:6-5." The next stone is from
the Fire Department of the City of New York, and number 6 tells
its own story: "The memory of the Just is Blessed. — Prov. 10:7.
Presented by the children of the Sunday Schools of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, in the City of New York, Feb. 22, 1855." The
seventh stone came from the sons of New England living in Canada.
The Jefferson Society of the University of Virginia donated
the first stone on the 270th-foot landing. The next stone is in-
scribed: "From the Home of Stark. By the ladies of Manchester,
N. H." The next stone came from the employees of R. Norris &
Son, Locomotive Works, Philadelphia. No. 4 came from the Con-
tinental Guard of New Orleans, La., giving names of 163 persons,
and stating that the Guard was organized Feb. 22, 1855. The
next stone came from the Cliosophic Society, Nassau Hall, N. J., and
the last stone "from the Alexandrian Library in Egypt, brought to
this country by G. C. Baker."
Action and inaction are suggested by the first stone on the
280th-foot landing as follows: " 'All that live must die.' A tribute
of respect from the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Dramatic Pro-
fession of America, 1853!" The next stone came as a gift from the
Class of 1853-54 of the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia.
Stone number 3 is inscribed: "From the Citizens of Alexandria,
Va. The Descendants of the Friends and Neighbors of Washington.
1851." The next stone came from the Hibernian Society of Balti-
more, and lists its officers and committee. The fifth stone reads,
"To Washington, An Humble Tribute from Two Disciples of
Daguerre." The next stone was a gift of the First Regiment of Light
Infantry, Mass., Vol. Militia, Boston. The seventh stone came
TURNING THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT INSIDE OUT 1033
from Honesdale, Pa., and the eighth is inscribed, "To the
Father of His Country. The Addison Literary Society of the West-
ern Military Institute, Brennon, Kentucky. Non nobis solum, sed
patriae et amicis."
Three states contributed three stones on the 290th-foot land-
ing, as follows: Oklahoma, 1907; Colorado, 1876; Texas, 1845.
While on the 300th-foot landing South Dakota has her name en-
graved in a stone, and the State of Washington on the 310th-foot
landing. On the 320th, Arizona is mentioned, and the 330th an-
nounces "Top of Statue on Capitol," meaning that this lettering
is at the same height as the top of the statue on the national Capitol
building.
When I had finished reading the inscriptions, I had forgotten
heat and perspiration, and rejoiced that the elevator was out of
commission, for its lameness forced me to do that which haste might
otherwise have caused me to ignore.
Doubtless if the Father of His Country could visit this great
structure the feature which he would find most interesting would
be the inscriptions on the memorial stones which comparatively few
visitors ever see.
The Common Walks of Life
Few souls who would not scale the height
For Love's eternal sake,
And few who would not die for right
Where honor is at stake.
For flag and countrymen will bleed
And drain the dregs of shame,
The zealot for his frenzied creed
Will wade through tongues of flame.
But in the common walks of life,
Where common things assail,
Mid homely tasks and petty strife —
Tis there where mortals fail.
Who curbs his wrath and guards his tongue,
Has more than legions tamed —
Is zealot, patriot unsung,
And a victor unacclaimed!
Mesa, Arizona BERTHA A. Kl.EINMAN
Native Plants as Friends and Foes
(Second Article)
By J. H. Paul, Professor of Natural Science at the
University of Utah
IT is reasonable to suppose that the semi-arid West has an unusual
number and variety of both medicinal and poisonous plants.
This may be due to the fact that the prevailing juice or secre-
tion of any plant is more concentrated from evaporation in the
West than in the moist regions. Plants breathe through their leaves
and also transpire moisture from them. The small leaf surface of
desert plants is the method nature takes of lessening evaporation.
According to the use that may be made of it, a plant may be re-
garded as either a medicine or a poisonous species. The following
list comprises our best known and most common plants that are
known to be poisonous. Western scouts should be able to find at
least ten of them for this remarkable plant project.
VIII. Find, collect, and present any ten of the following:
Name
Poison Ivy.
Rhus Rydbergii.
Poison Hemlock.
Cicuta occidentalis.
Stinging Nettle.
Urtica dioica.
Twinberry Honeysuckle.
Lonicera involucrata.
Baneberry.
Actaea arguta-White;
Actaea rubra-Red.
Larkspurs.
Delphinium.
Silky Lupine.
Lupinus.
sVoolly Loco.
Astragalus
Death Camass.
Zygadenus elegans.
Poison Sego.
Zygadenus paniculatus.
Water Parsnip.
Western Poisonous Plants
Identification Marks
Low shrub; large leaves in 3's;
red in autumn.
Tall: by streams; stems pur-
plish: leaves compound, fls. in
clusters.
Like tall catnip; no blossoms.
Canyon shrub; black berries in
red bracts.
Canyon herb; elegant, large
compound leaves; red or white
berries in upright clusters.
Blue fls. with one spur; deep-
ly cut leaves.
Blue or white pea fls. ; leaves
digitate.
Low, silky herb; bluish pea
flower; finger-like lvs.
Long, grass-like leaves; small
whitish lilies.
Stout leaves in fountain form;
greenish fls.; bulb.
Tall; leaves compound; fls., in
How Poisonous
To touch.
Low canyons.
Root if eaten.
In marshes.
To touch.
Everywhere.
Berries.
Canyons.
Fruit.
Canyons, in shade.
To sheep.
Hills, mountains.
To sheep.
Mountains.
To sheep.
Mountains, plains.
To sheep.
High mountains.
Bulb if eaten.
Hills.
Roots if eaten.
NATIVE PLANTS AS FRIENDS AND FOES
1035
Name
Sium cicutaefolium.
Wild Parsnip.
Pastinaca sativa.
Western Coneflower.
Rudbeckia occidentalis.
Saw-toothed Sneezeweed.
Senecio serra.
Throughout our mts.
Lobe-leaf Sneezeweeds.
Senecio Species.
Unarmed Ragweed.
Arbrosia artemaesifolia.
Armed Ragweed.
Amb. psylostachya.
Identification Marks
white umbels.
Like cultivated parsnip.
Large ovate leaves: f Is. in black
cones; no ray fls.
Tall; many fls.. in heads like
small sunfls. Leaves with saw-
toothed edges.
Smaller; leaves rounded, upper
lobed or parted.
Low herb; leaves much cut,
hairy; fls, a spike of small, in-
verted helmets.
Less hairy, less leafy; stems
dark green, contain red dye.
How Poisonous
In marshes, rivers.
Roots, if eaten.
To breathe the pollen
gives hay fever.
Man and beast get hay
fever from breathing pol-
len of Senecio.
Pollen causes hay fever.
Perhaps the worst hay
fever weed; common in
valleys; "bitterweed."
Hay fever. The fruits arc
burs.
Golden-rod, Helenium. and other Compositae. such as the common sunflower,
many of the grasses, also elms and other trees that are wind pollinated, roses and other
fragrant flowers, have been known to cause or to aggravate hay fever; the heat and
dust of towns, trains, and unpaved roads may induce or intensify the malady. The
remedy is to get rid of ragweeds, avoid the others, and go into cool places, preferably
the mountains, in summer.
Campers' and Hikers' Plagues
Every long-established campsite now used by hikers, scouts, or
outing parties is today infested by from five to ten terrific plant
nuisances — some ten kinds of prickly, bristly, irritating torments,
which should immediately be gotten rid of. There is no way of
avoiding these exasperating prickly weeds except by keeping one's
feet within the beaten trail, which is often dusty, worn, rocky, and
uneven. Step outside of that dusty streak, and you must meet the
torture of grassy needles, burs, prickles, stings, and hay-fever dust,
which severally and collectively mar the exhilaration of a tramp
among the hills. About certain camps the native covering of herbs
and grasses has been well-nigh exterminated. From careless fires,
clearings, travel, bedding places of stock, and other forms of destruc-
tion, the ground has been cleared and thorns and thistles have come in.
Nature, which dislikes bare ground, proceeds to cover the naked
earth with whatever she has at hand — mostly with weeds from all
nearby places. This hasty covering preserves the soil from being
swept away by rain, wind, and melting snow.
Cocklebur, Burdock, and Sandbur
Three of the worst species, too well known, are burdock, cockle-
bur, and sandbur. Little description need be given of them. The
two latter are native, but burdock was imported in pioneer days as a
1036 IMPROVEMENT ERA
blood-purifier. None of them is of the slightest value today, and
all three should be ruthlessly destroyed. Besides being nuisances,
these weeds inflict heavy losses on flockmasters, the burs clinging
to the wool of sheep and lowering the price of the product. Cows'
tails are often completely clotted by them; and, to the annoyance
and suffering of these animals, the hair of woolly dogs and even the
manes of horses collect the wretched burs in quantity. By catching
in the stockings and other clothing, all such pests lower the enjoy-
ment of out-door rambles.
Stickseed and Brome Grass
On a plant with rather tall, branching stems pretty blue forget-
me-nots in spring adorn the hillsides near most Rocky Mountain
towns. As the plants go to seed, little burs replace the numerous
blossoms, and stand ready to catch upon whatever brushes against
them. A later-blooming form in the higher mountains grows to
three or four feet on stems slightly branched because of the compe-
tition there of other forms of vegetation. Then there is a many-
stemmed form (Lappula subecumbens) that lies partly on the
ground. All these, easily learned at sight and long remembered from
the annoyance they cause, are easy to pull up, being shallow-rooted.
The writer is accustomed to clear off these weeds each stopping place
during a hike. As the weeds are pulled, they are laid in straight
piles; the flowers or prickles pointing one way, so that, even if the
weeds are not finally burned, they cling together in a mass and are not
likely to spread their burs.
Small brome grass, usually mis-called June grass here, is a
drooping, one-sided grass about a foot high, one kind purplish at
first, with long bristles on seeds that ripen in early summer. This
dry tinder affords any spark a chance to start a fire. Small brome
is in some respects our worst weed; it is extending everywhere, is of
only slight use as forage, while it spreads and multiplies forest fires.
It has long, spiny stickers, which get into one's stockings. Brome
grasses, however, seem especially liable to infestation by ergot — a
black, powdery mass of fungus that grows about grass seeds. Small
brome, in the mountains, seems most subject to this smut — a fact
that may save us from many a forest fire.
Horehound, Thistle, and Stinging Nettle
Horehound, cousin to the catnip, is one of the most usual signs
of over-grazing. It is a grayish, woolly herb of the mint family, with
oval, saw-toothed leaves, opposite on rounded stems. Just above
each leaf is a cluster of small whitish flowers, which soon become
prickly burs — the prongs of the dry calyx. In recent years, the
spread of two pests, stinging nettle and tall thistle, is noteworthy,
NATIVE PLANTS AS FRIENDS AND FOES 1037
being due to fires or over-grazing. Extending along trails to many of
the mountain tops, these two causes of tribulation greatly mar the
pleasure of mountain-climbing. Nettle is tall, straight, about four
feet high; leaves lance-shaped, three to five inches long, whitish
below, with stems lined or grooved. The plant is covered with short
bristly hairs that penetrate and sting the skin, producing blisters. An
interesting feature is the explosion of the anther shortly after sunrise
The stamens hang in little curls; and the pollen dust, resembling little
puffs of smoke, shoots out as the plants are warmed in the morning
sun.
Thistles need little description. The worst thistle, the Ca-
nadian, is rare; it has many very small heads — Yi inch — and many
spines. The pasture and the mountain species, with large heads,
are everywhere proceeding to cover unoccupied land. They are stout
herbs from 3 to 6 feet high, with sessile leaves having prickly teeth
and tips, and 2-inch heads of purplish to white flowers. There
are also small species, a few with yellow flowers.
In high mountain parks, over-grazing or fire is likely to be fol-
lowed by the large Frazer's gentians, plants four to five feet high,
stout, and resembling fields of small corn. These spring up in moist
places only, and are not necessarily indications of denuded land.
In high places also, the rosin leaf, or Wyethia, is likely to cover
bare land. Wyethias of several species are often mis-called docks,
which are plants of a different family. Wyethias are liked by
horses and other stock, and so do not represent an entire waste as
do the usual plants that follow over-grazing.
CONEFLOWER, RAGWEEDS, KNOTWEEDS, DOCKS
Western cone-flower, "niggerhead," spreads quickly over bare
mountain land. Its black heads of small massed flowers are not
accompanied by rays of the sun-flower sort in our common species.
It has leaves ovate, pointed, four to eight inches long, mostly smooth
and entire, but some roughish and slightly toothed. In moist land
from Montana to Arizona, a species with all the leaves cut or di-
vided occurs; eastward is another, about three feet high, like our
common species, but mostly with yellow ray flowers, and with
rough, bristly, and hairy leaves. Its pollen may produce hay fever.
Ragweeds often follow over-grazing on hills and plains of mod-
erate altitudes. They are rough-hairy plants, their fruiting flowers
hidden singly among the leaves; the stamen-bearing flowers in long,
slender, pointed clusters at the tips of branches. The stamen cups
have the form of tiny helmets or inverted coal scuttles. These,
inverted to shed the rain, are filled with pollen dust — a yellow
powder in great quantity. The leaves are lobed and cut into ragged
1038 IMPROVEMENT ERA
divisions. One kind has unarmed, smooth little nutlets and rather
thick leaves; the other kind is armed with prickly burs and has leaves
of thinner texture; it is called armed ragweed. Both are notorious
as hay-fever weeds.
Small erect knotweeds thickly cover bare land. They grow
from six to eight inches high, have oblong leaves, and stems covered
with papery sheaths at the joints, similar to the knotweed that lies
flat and covers garden paths in the valleys.
Sour docks are plants that resemble and are related to the culti-
vated rhubarb. They have large leaves, jointed stems, covered with
papery sheaths, and masses of brown triangular seeds at the top,
sometimes called Indian tobacco.
Wild Lettuce, Squirrel-Tail, Sand-Bur
Prickly lettuce often comes up in great abundance on bare
land. It is wild lettuce, the compass plant, which, in growth,
contrives finally to turn its leaves to north and south. It has a
milky juice and soft spines on the mid-rib.
Squirrel-tail grass is likely to be one of the most frequent new
tenants of land in the valleys left vacant. Its long, penetrating
needles, forming the squirrel-tail clusters of flowers and seeds, are
probably known to nearly everyone.
Bur grass, or sandbur, is a creeping grass of warm and mostly
sandy soils. Its spikelets of one to three grass flowers are inclosed
in a spiny bur that forms the involucre. The burs readily drop from
the stem, thus making it one of the most troublesome plants we have.
Its scientific name, Cenchrus tribuloides, indicates its nature as a
special tormenter of bare-footed children.
What Can We Do About It?
Unless the area is in the mountains, the presence of any of the
plants that indicate over-grazing is not proof that the land has
been fire-swept or over-grazed; but their abundance in the moun-
tains is clear evidence of over-grazing or other abuse of the land.
People in the valley below can hardly maintain that they have not
abused, or permitted the abuse of, the land that is covered by plants
that indicate over-grazing or fire. In the valleys the abandonment
of any land that has been cultivated is sure to be followed by a crop
of thorns and thistles; yet there may not have been either over-graz-
ing or fires. But wherever these plant signs of over-grazing occur in
the mountains, the people in the valley below can hardly maintain
that their mountain land has not been abused.
What can we do with these pests? Simply destroy them. Net-
tles can be crushed and laid low by stepping upon them near the
base. Thistles must be cut off, preferably below the soil. Brome
NATIVE PLANTS AS FRIENDS AND FOES
1039
grass, squirrel-tail, and sandbur grass may be burned. Ragweeds,
stickseeds, horehound, coneflower, may be pulled up by hand.
Prickly lettuce should be cut down. If campers would co-operate,
each doing his bit, mountain camps and trails would soon be restored
to their former natural conditions, freed from prickly and stinging
weeds, and covered with the interesting vegetation of the region.
IX. Present specimens of any ten of the following:
Camper's Plagues and Signs of Over-grazing or Fire
Name
Sticksced Forget-me-
not.
Ascending Sticksced.
Western Coneflower.
Sand bur Grass
Small Brome Grass.
Squirrel-tail Grass.
Bull Thistle.
Canadian Thistle.
Other Thistles.
How to Eradicate
Pull up; burn.
Pull up; burn.
Pull up; burn.
Hoe up; burn.
Hoe up; burn.
Hoe up; burn.
Chop off below
soil.
Cut, bury, burn.
Hoe up; mow
Name
Stinging Nettle.
Prickly Lettuce.
Sweet Cicely.
Horehound.
Armed Ragweed.
Unarmed Ragweed
Cocklebur.
Burdock.
Mallow.
Torch Weed.
Erect Knotweed.
How to Eradicate
Tread down.
Cut; hoc.
Cut; hoe.
Pull up; burn.
Pull up; burn.
Pull up; burn.
Pull up; burn.
Chop root; burn.
Chop root; burn.
Pull up; burn.
Pull up; burn.
Each of the foregoing weeds, either well known or described
herein, is a sign of nature's effort to clothe her nakedness — to re
cover over-grazed, or fire-swept, or flood-swept land. Any of these
will soon re-cover lands that have been denuded by snowslide, flood,
over-grazing, or fire.
Fine Species That Cover Bare Land
False Hellebore, a tall, straight, heavy-stemmed plant with
alternate, parallel-veined leaves in the form of boats or cups that hold
water next to the stem, and with a mass of greenish-white flowers at
the top, is also a sign of over-grazing, but need not be exterminated.
It may grow in close formation, resembling Indian corn, elegant and
imposing — just an interesting giant lily.
Horse Dock (Wyethia), a low herb with large, shining, deep-
green, entire or finely toothed leaves lance-shape in outline, and with
stems 12 to 18 inches high bearing large sunflower blossoms two or
three inches across — is also a sign of over-grazing. It need not be
exterminated, horses like it, and it is handsome. I prefer to call it
Rosin Leaf because of its gummy content. It is distinguished from
the similar, earlier-flowering Balsam Roots ( Balsamorrhiza ) by the
densely white, silky covering of the leaves of the latter. Both are
ornamental, deserving a place in gardens.
1040 IMPROVEMENT ERA
Tall Iva, the velvet-leaf, (Iva xanthifolia) is a sort of blos-
somless sunflower, two to four feet high, with large ovate leaves
very smooth above; it has minute greenish curls for flowers, which,
filled with pollen, induce hay fever. It sometimes follows over-
grazing and is common in the valleys.
Daisy Fleabane (Erigeron ramosus) an erect, slender weed one
to two feet high, branching at the top like a tree, and with minute,
daisy-like, whitish flowers and much silky pappus, follows over-
grazing and probably induces hay fever; it is more common in
fallow fields.
Torch Weed (see the author's Farm Friends and Spring Flow-
ers) is a foot high, with thread-like branches and little yellow star
flowers. It is of unusual interest and unique in elegance.
Moonlight and Silver Stars
Moonlight and silver stars,
O'er head the summer sky.
Branches like phantom bars,
Softly the night winds sigh.
On the deep river's breast,
Ruffled by current swift.
Welcome, thou heavenly guest;
Ripples by moonbeams kissed.
Sweetly the night-bird trills
Sharp on the quiv'ring air,
With gladsome lightness fills
All the creation, fair.
Night is the dearest time,
Naught her perfection mars;
Bright shine, in ev'ry clime.
Moonlight and silver stars.
Sen Jose, Calif. ALICE MAUDE SCHUTTE
A Short Story of Rice Culture
By John Q. Adams
As we leave the city of Honolulu be-
hind, and traverse the beautiful Nuuanu
valley, we come within a half dozen miles
to an elevation of coolness1 and wonderful
scenery, culminating at the famous Pali.
a high, narrow mountain pass where old
warrior Kamehameha more than a hundred
years ago met an opposing force, fought a
grim battle at the edge of a tremendous
cliff, and cast enough of his opponents
down this to insure peace overtures' from
the remainder. From this vantage point,
one may gaze at the most entrancing sea
and land view to be had. Clinging peril-
ously to the frowning face of the sheer
cliff, a winding road takes you to the low-
lands on Oahu's windward shore, and for
miles one winds along among banana
plants, taro "lois." rice fields and other
and varied Garden of Eden plots. As our
subject is rice, we shall pass up all else,
and hold to our topic.
At Kaneohe village, a quaint cluster of
Oriental huts, we emerge upon a lovely
setting which is very striking to the new-
comer. We see tiny squares of bog-land
sustaining a luxurious growth of what we
take to be grain, which it closely resembles.
From each separate tiny stock develops a
head of white kernels, the aggregate wher-
ever rice is grown forming the staff of life
for more than half the inhabitants of the
earth. Just now it has turned brown and
stands ready for the reaper (sickle) . Twice
each year is the process of planting and
garnering repeated in Hawaii — truly a
fruitful land and crop.
We of the States think of grain, gang
plows, drills and combined harvesters as
associated together in natural sequence.
Here the rice is grown without any of
these assistants. We see employed the pa-
tient, plodding hand-methods in vogue
from biblical days until now.
A dun-hued carabao, rolling-fat, with
horns widely sweeping towards its shoul-
ders, can now and then be seen demurely
drawing a flimsy wooden pronged stick
through deep, quivering mud, for rice
thrives best in a slough habitation. The
scantily-clad owner is jerked from side to
side as he succeeds in extricating in turn
each foot from the slimy quagmire. Often-
times he is mud-plastered to the waist.
Sometimes the plowing is done with several
inches of water covering the mud, and then
we wonder at the plowman's ability to
follow the last scratch made. Possibly
he and the carabao have sufficiently de-
veloped the sense of touch not to be under
the necessity of depending upon that of
sight, only. But the silt retains its rich-
ness.
Then the planting! The seed has
previously been sprouted in a bed to a
height of about six inches. This is lifted
out by the handful, the tops clipped, and
each separate stalk stuck in the mud and
spaced exactly as our grain is sown — rows
just wide enough to admit the small Ori
ental foot betwixt, and the stalks an inch
or so apart. The rows are kept trim and
straight, but the progress of transplanting.
as may be surmised, is painfully slow, but
perfectly efficient. Within a few weeks the
slough is a solid field of waving green, and
for a couple or three months now the lot
of the planter is an easy one.
With the appearance of the heads, how-
ever, he leads a hectic life. He is distracted
by the coming of flocks of the diminutive
rice-bird, as well as the depredations of the
omnipresent sparrow. These proceed to
make it a dawn-to-dusk battle of wits as
to who shall do the harvesting. Some
times honors are about equally shared, but
generally the more intelligent mind of the
man 'insures his triumph. Both are fight-
ing for bread, and the owner brings
strategy into play. In the center of his
field he erects a small platform, say five
feet in height, over which he stretches a
piece of canvas against sun and rain. From
this crude central radiate a number of wires
1042
IMPROVEMENT ERA
to all parts of the field, on the end of each
a bell or kerosene can containing a few
rocks. From his vantage point on the
platform he watches all day, and, at the
appearance of birds in any part of his
domain, he simply jerks the wire leading to
the invaded sector, and a great noise fright-
ens the puzzled birds! He also sets up, all
over the field, some of the most hideous
scarecrows imaginable, and, as these mon-
sters flutter and wriggle and signal and
gesture, small wonder it is that the feath-
ered vandals view the menace from far-off
trees. Or, as is more frequently the custom,
the owner, shouldering an ancient muzzle-
loader, walks about his field all day as a
sentinel upon the dikes, and time after time
we have watched him level his noisy but
harmless musket, seen the puff of white,
heard the sharp report, and away with a
whirr has gone the flock of rice-birds.
He carries his powder flask, and full set of
re-loading apparatus along, so in a moment
is going again, ready for the next sortie.
Eternal vigilance is the price of rice, as
well as liberty; so the man wins.
As the straw takes on the dull brown,
betokening maturity, along comes the
sickle brigade of two or three neighbors
working conveniently together, and the
bunches are bound by hand with a few
straws, as our ancestors used to do it. It is
not left long in the shock, as there is too
much rain here, and the field is too wet,
so it is carried by hand generally, to the
threshing floor. Many of these are by the
side of the main highway of Oahu, so one
can watch the proceedings from the car
as one drives along. A cement floor about
thirty feet square, with its sides raised a
few inches, receives possibly 100 bundles.
Over this horses are driven in a circle as
in horse-power days. Just now thresh-
ing is going on all over, and we saw this
week in one place four scraggy ponies tied
together with a rope, stepping warily over
uneven bundles, as one Chinese stood in
the center holding the rope, and another
cracked a whip over the backs of the
horses, and two more Chinese were stirring
up the straw with two-pronged forks. In
the friendly trade-wind the chaff is cleared
away, and then the rice is said to be in the
"paddy." It is a golden brown in its last
husk, which is not further molested until
it gets to the mill later on.
It is now scraped into small ridges on
the cement floor, and sunned and dried,
being churned about constantly to make the
drying thorough. Suppose at this stage
a dark cloud appears to windward. The
man in charge always has his eye on the
weather, and with the first indication of
an apporachnig shower, he sounds the
alarm, and several men rush to his aid
By shovel, hoe or a board used as a scraper
and horse-drawn, the layer is quickly
heaped into a golden pyramid, and covered
with a big tarpaulin. It may be only a
passing dash of Hawaii's "liquid sunshine."
or it may be a prolonged heavy fall of
rain but no chance is taken, for frequent
soaking would spoil the grain. And, as
this drying process goes on, chickens wan-
der on the scene, quite overcome at man's
generosity in laying out such a banquet
for them. They are suddenly bidden to
beat a hasty retreat by a long whip crack-
ing sharply overhead. Some of the fowls
get too accustomed to this to be bluffed, so
are pushed away.
Finally, the patient rice grower, having
fought his way through all these obstacles,
sees the few dollars which are his compen-
sation, and we inquisitive Occidentals see
a most interesting bit of life transplanted
from the Orient. — Laie, Oahu, T. H.
Take care of your habits and your health will take care of itself.
Cheerfulness is the bravery born of wisdom.
Persons with narrow minds are not responsible for the words they utter in fits of
anger. Broad-minded people seldom give way to anger.
The person with a dwarfed brain should never be censured — it is a case for pity
— Dorothy C. Retsloff.
Appreciation
By Wm. A. Morton
This story was told me by a young
married woman one evening as we sat in
the depot at Cache Junction, waiting for
our train.
After we had talked for some time about
different things, the young woman said to
mc: "There is one man in this world
that I shall never forget."
"And who might he be?" I asked.
"President Joseph F. Smith." was the
answer. Then she went on: "He helped
me once, and every time I think of his
kind act — which I do often — I feel very
grateful to him."
"Would you mind telling me about it?"
I asked — "about the kind act which you
have remembered so long, and for which
you feel so thankful?"
Then she told me the story, little think-
ing that some day, it would be told to
about fifty thousand Religion Class chil-
dren, in order to teach them the lesson of
Gratitude.
"When I was a girl," said the lady. "I
decided to go to Salt Lake City, in order
to find employment, so that I might be
able to buy my own clothes, and other
things that I needed, and thus help my
parents, who were not very well off.
"In Salt Lake I got work as a maid in
a hotel; but I did not like the place, and
after staying there a short time I decided
to leave. The morning I left the hotel
I had only twenty-five cents. I was a
stranger in the city, and did not know
what to do nor where to go. I walked up
the street until I came to the Eagle Gate.
I stopped there, and stood looking at the
people going to their work How happy
they all seemed! And Oh, how miserable
I felt! No one spoke to me; in fact, no
one seemed to notice me. How long I
stood there I do not know.
"I was almosit ready to cry. when the
door of the Beehive House opened and
President Smith came out. I knew him,
but he did not know me. I had never
spoken to him. He looked at me as he
passed. He had gone but a few steps when
he stopped, came back, and looking down
into my face said, 'What is the matter,
my girl? You seem to be in trouble?'
"He listened to me like my own father
while I told him my story. Then he
said. 'Well, daughter, come with me.' He
took me to his home, and presenting me
to his wife said, 'Here is a poor, friendless
girl. Take care of her till she gets a good
place to work.'
"I was taken into the house of the
President, and was treated with much
kindness. In a short time I found a good
situation."
Just then the train whistled, and as the
good woman picked up her baby she said.
"No. I shall never forget President Jo-
seph F. Smith."
Raymond, Canada
As a Man Thinketh
You must stand soldier-like at the door of your mind.
There are thoughts that must not enter in;
Envy and malice and hatred and greed.
Many more that are deadly, are sin.
When the seed of deep hate in the mind is once sown.
Few flowers> of pure love will then grow.
For thoughts are real things and you will soon find.
That the harvest will be as you sow.
Ah. beware, lest they find you asleep at your post,
Like a thief they slip in unawares,
Rob you of treasures more precious than gold:
God will help you. will answer your prayers.
Helen Kimball Orgill
Messages from the Missions
The Growth of the South African Mission
By President Samuel Martin
This is a subject which lies very near to
my heart, as it was in this country that I
heard the name "Mormon" for the first
time.
Missionary activities in South Africa
were commenced
when Elders Jesse
Haven, Leonard I.
Smith and William
H. Walker arrived
on April 19,
1853.
By June 15,
Elder Leonard I.
Smith baptized
Henry Stringer and
within six months
the elders had bap-
tized forty-five per-
sons, organized two
branches, and blessed
a number of chil-
dren.
February, 1854,
a branch was organ-
ized at Beaufort by
William H. Walker.
Later a branch was
organized at Port
Elizabeth under the
direction of Elder
Leonard I. Smith.
I n November,
1855, two of the
members, Charles
Roper and John
Stock, purchased the ship Unity, in
order to furnish a number of emigrants
with steerage accommodation for Zion.
In 185 7, Elder Ebenezer C. Richard-
son, accompanied by Elder James Brooks,
was sent from the British mission to pre-
side over the "Cape of Good Hope mis-
sion."
In March. 1859, thirty Saints, in
President Samuel Martin
charge of Elder Joseph R. Humphreys,
emigrated to Zion from Port Elizabeth
on the ship Alacrity.
In March, 1863, a company of fifteen
emigrating Saints left Port Elizabeth
bound for Zion. A
few days later a
company of thirty
left by the barque.
Henry Ellis, in
charge of Elders
Robert Grand and
John Stock, local
elders.
Elders Fothcring-
ham, Dixon and
Talbot remained in
Cape Colony until
the spring of 1864.
achieving consider-
able success.
In 1866, the last
of the elders sailed
for Zion, leaving the
mission in charge of
the local brethren.
It was on July
25, 1903. nearly
forty years later,
when Elders Warren
H. Lyons. Wm. R.
Smith. Thomas L.
Griffith and George
A. Simpkins arrived
to re-open the mis-
sion and to their
great joy found a few members still living
and bearing faithful testimony.
Elder George Buck, the local brother
who had been left in charge of the Mow-
bray branch, was its sole survivor, nearly
ninety years of age, but full of zeal and
testimony of the truth of the restored plan,
One year and three months later it was
my privilege to be the first to apply for
MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS
1045
baptism; and with Thomas Sawyer of
Claremont, I was baptized in Table Bay
and confirmed a member in the Church
of Jesus Christ by Elder Warren H. Lyons.
The following month I was ordained to
the office of a priest and encouraged to
take an active part with the elders.
Our membership increased very con-
siderably the following year, and the elders
were able to rent a hall and organize a
Sunday School, giving us all great oppor-
tunities for development and growth.
Since that time many have emigrated to
Zion, among whom were the author of
these lines and his family, in 1916. We
settled in Ogden, where I was called to
preside over the Y. M. M. I. A. of the
Sixth ward. Later the Thirteenth ward
was organized with J. H. Jenkins as
bishop and I was called to be his first
counselor, in which capacity I served for
eight and a half __years. after which I was
called to work on the high council in the
Ogden stake until April, 1926, when I,
accompanied by my wife and three young-
est sons, was honored with a call to re-
turn to South Africa as successor to Presi-
dent James Wyley Sessions.
The work has continued to grow under
the supervision of the successive mission
presidents, namely: Warren H. Lyons,
Ralph A. Badger, Henry L. Steed, Brig-
ham H. Hendricks, Frank J. Hewlett.
Nicholas G. Smith, and James Wyley
Sessions.
In 1919, the South African Government
decided to forbid elders of the Church of
Jesus Christ to do missionary work in the
Union of South Africa; therefore, during
the latter part of President Nicholas G.
Smith's mission and at the beginning of
President J. Wyley Sessions' term South
Africa was without elders; and for nearly
two years the branch presidents were the
ever faithful stand-bys, conducting and
carrying on the work at Mowbray, Kim-
berley, Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, and
Port Elizabeth, while the mission presi-
dent visited the several districts.
President Nicholas G. Smith, together
with his wife and three sons, spent nearly
seven and a half years as president of the
South African mission. During his presi-
dency the Mowbray property was pur-
chased by the Church as a mission home.
to which was added a small meeting house
to accommodate about one hundred, and
named "Cumorah."
In March, 1921, President Nicholas
G. Smith was succeeded by President
"Cumorah." Mowbray — Mission Headquarters
1046
IMPROVEMENT ERA
James Wyley Sessions.
President Sessions soon set to work to
gain the ear of the South African Govern-
ment and successfully negotiated the re-
newal of Christian ministers' rights to
preach the Gospel. In granting these
rights, however, the Latter-day Saints were
limited to a quota of twenty-five mission-
aries. He also obtained ministerial con-
cessions on the government railways.
During the presidency of James Wyley
Sessions the Church purchased a property
in Johannesburg and built a very pleasant
meeting house with a seating capacity for
one hundred and fifty, and accommoda-
tions for four elders.
Since my arrival, on June 22, 1926,
growth in membership during the past
twenty-four years, our active membership
is not large, owing to so many having left
for Zion whenever their financial condi-
tions permitted. Others have removed
from the branches to outlying districts and
become lost to the elders, and being shut
off from the Church activities I fear many
found an unsympathetic world too much
for their faith.
I am persuaded that the South African
mission comprises a larger territory than
any other single mission of the Church.
When we combine Northern and Southern
Rhodesia, and Southwest Africa to the
Union of South Africa, we have an area
of over one million square miles and we
'Ramah," L. D S. chapel at Johannesburg
I am grateful to report a very steady and
pleasing growth.
In June, 1927, with the very able
assistance of Mission Secretary Leo
R. Jenson, I commenced the publication of
the Cumorah Monthly Bulletin, which
has been a source of great help and bless-
ing to Saints and friends; resuscitating quite
a lively interest among many who were
out of touch with the mission.
Much prejudice seems to have been re-
moved and the public press has1 been very
fair and kind in publishing interviews from
time to time, besides requesting certain
articles from the elders and myself.
Although there has been a constant
have members scattered throughout.
I visited Kabrib, Southwest Africa, in
April, 1927, and ordained Brother Law-
rence C. Ratcliff to the office of an elder
and encouraged him to invite his friends
and hold cottage meetings in his home.
Since that time he has baptized three souls.
At the same time I ordained Brother
Ratcliff, I ordained his step-son, Bertram
J. Glynn, to the office of an elder and
set him apart for missionary labors with
our elders in the South African Union.
He is doing splendid work.
Last March I took a trip up into South-
ern Rhodesia, accompanied by District
President Marion L. Allred. We baptized
MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS
1047
the two sons of Brother Walter Taylor
Jubber; these brethren had not seen an
elder for years.
South Africa is a very beautiful coun-
try. The people are hospitable and gladly
extend kindnesses to the traveling elders.
In the Union of South Africa we have
an area of 472.347 square miles, and a
white population of (about) 1,300,000;
about 600,000 colored, besides nearly
4,000,000 of the negro races.
Southwest Africa has a white popula-
tion of about 15,000; Southern Rhodesia
has a white population of nearly 50.000.
many of whom are centered in Bulawayo
and Salisbury, where we could use six
elders.
Owing to the small number of elders
in the South African mission, and dis-
tances being so great, we are unable to
open up more than seven districts, namely:
Mowbray. Kimberly, Bloemfontein. Johan-
nesburg. Natal. East London, and Port
Elizabeth.
We have two elders in Mowbray district
for a white population of 200.000; two
elders in Kimberly district for a white
population of 19,000; two elders in the
Bloemfontein district for a white popula-
tion of 20.000; four elders in the Johan-
nesburg district for a white population of
200,000; two elders in Durban, Natal,
district for a white population of 55,000:
two elders in East London district for a
white population of 22.000: and two
elders in Port Elizabeth district for a
white population of 30,000.
We could use with success six elders in
Southwest Africa, six elders in Southern
Rhodesia, and fifty in the Union of South
Africa, whereas we have nineteen includ-
ing Sister Martin.
South Africa has many towns of several
thousand inhabitants which have only
been casually tracted by elders passing
through.
We have very few local brethren who
are financially able to support a son In the
mission field; however, we have a: the
present time two elders. Bertram J. Glynn,
previously mentioned, and Albert Ed'.vard
Hughes, son of Sister and Mr. Donald
Hughes of Johannesburg. Both these
young men are doing a splendid work and
giving great joy to their parents.
Our missionary labors for 1927, with
an average of twenty elders, was produc-
tive of much good. Our records show
that we visited (not tracting) 15.5 74
families of investigators; we held 17,420
gospel conversations; sold 332 Books of
Mormon and 298 standard works ind
other books; 6,742 pamphlets (over six-
teen pages) were distributed; 3 9,241
tracts were distributed: we held 2.74 1
meetings; baptized thirty-four converts
and blessed twenty-one children.
This year we have already sold more
Books of Mormon and have baptized more
people than all of last year.
Our elders are working with a zeal and
determination to prove that the South
African mission is worth all that it costs
the people of Zion to send missionaries
to this far-off land.
That it is a mission worth the sacrifice
it calls for is manifested by the earnest
endeavors of our elders, and we earnestly
pray that the time is not far distant when
we may extend our activities to the many
towns where only passing visits have been
made, that South Africa from Cape Town
to the Zambezi may rejoice in the liberal
knowledge of our glorious message, and
for this purpose we humbly pray God to
send us more laborers to this great con-
tinent.
Dr. F. W. Gunsaulus. former president of the Armour Institute. Chicago, as an
educator, made this statement: "I do not believe there is an agency more destructive
of soul, mind and body, or more subversive of good morals than the cigarette. The
fight against the cigarette is a fight for civilization."
1048
IMPROVEMENT ERA
The Armenian Mission
By President Joseph W. Booth
Among the twenty-seven missions of
the Church, the Armenian mission is the
paradoxical conundrum of them all.
What is there so peculiar about it?
Stop, look, and listen! Eighty-seven years
ago, Oct. 24, 1841, that almost match-
less prayer of Apos-
tle Orson Hyde was
offered on the
Mount of Olives.
That might be
counted as the con-
ception of our mis-
sion work in the
Orient. Since then
we have had seven
apostles in our
midst, about forty
missionaries, and
some twenty visitors,
in all averaging less
than one person a
year from Zion.
We have now
only one branch
and, I think, fewer
members than
any other mission in
the world; yet we
have almost as many
square miles in our
unbounded territory
as all the other mis-
sions put together.
Of course you will
demand some proof for such a statement.
Well, on the west, our nearest neigh-
bors in the ministry are the French mis-
sion and the German-Austrian mission,
and to them we must concede most of the
eastern part of Europe, although Greece
has been ours for a long time. Inasmuch
as there are no missions to the north of
us our boundary in that direction lies in
boreal beds of ice, and hence includes all
Asiatic Russia. And if the Armenian mis-
President Joseph W. Booth
Who has spent seventeen years in the
mission field.
sion is bounded by the South African
mission in that far-away field, then we
can claim all of Eastern Africa north of
the equator. Again, on our southeast,
we have the Australian mission meeting
us far beyond the borders of Arabia and
India; and now that
the Japanese Mission
is closed we must
hark away to Sa-
moa, Hawaii, and
Alaska to find our
eastern boundary.
So there falls to this
little mission more
than twenty-one
million square miles
of field work.
Granting us, now,
these mentioned
boundaries we have
more than one-half
the population of
the world to look
after, and were we,
the two present mis-
sionaries, to take an
airship today, and
fly, day and night,
over this vast field
and cover every
square mile at the
rate of 100 miles an
hour, throwing
down 70 printed
messages every minute, that each per-
son might get a single tract, it would take
us twenty-four years to make that one big
visit.
Our past and present status may be
briefly told by counting up to ten; thu9:
One lady missionary, two workers in the
field today, three cities have served as our
headquarters, four elders have died in the
field, five nationalities have been baptized,
six languages are needed to teach them,
MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS
1049
seven apostles have been here, eight cties
now claim one or more of our members,
and nine out of ten are in poverty.
We are known as the Armenian mis-
sion, and here again, the paradox. The
name is too big, and too little. If we
are to reach all the Armenian race we must
likely trespass upon the field of every
other mission in the world, for the Ar-
menians, like the Jews, are scattered among
all nations, and yet they do not form a
tenth part of the population of even our
present scenes of activity in Syria and
Palestine. Although 95 r; of our recorded
membership in all these years are Arme-
nians, yet the name is not altogethci ap-
propriate for the best interest of the mis-
sion.
Most of my readers will remember the
world-round mission visits of Elder
David O. McKay and Elder Hugh J. Can-
non in 1920-21. They had been travel-
ing for nearly a year and had visited the
Pacific Islands, New Zealand, Australia,
Japan, China, India, Egypt, and were on
their homeward journey toward Europe
and America. The writer had left Utah
in September, 1921, and was not informed
as to the itinerary of these elders1, except
that they had been instructed to visit the
twelve-year-shepherdless flock in Syria.
Where were these brethren ? On this
point I was as ignorant as they were
of my whereabouts. Fervent prayers
were offered daily to the Lord, in
whose service we were, that somehow, in
his infinite wisdom, we all might meet;
and of course Palestine was the most de-
sirable place in all the world for that meet-
ing, but how unlikely amid a million
chances!
I had met with a prolonged delay in
Italy, and then after a brief call to visit
the Saints in Athens. Greece, I proceeded
to Alexandria, and thence by rail across
the Delta, to the bridge at Kantara, where
I made a midnight change of trains, and
then passed on toward the Holy Land.
I shall not soon forget that morning of
November 4. Let my diary of that
date tell its own story:
"Soon after midnight I was gliding
over the sands in quiet, peaceful sleep,
along the way where 'Joseph and Mary
and the young Child' went on their jour-
ney from Egypt 'into the Land of Israel.'
The night was a most beautiful one as
I started, and again just before the dawn
of day, as I looked out of the train win-
dow, the eastern sky was a scene of
transcendent beauty.
"All the planets, except Uranus, wen.
morning stars. Neptune was invisible,
Mercury but a tiny twinkler, Saturn and
Mars only ordinary objects among the
thousands of worlds of the universe, but
Jupiter and Venus were brilliant as
diamonds on the blue robes of a royal
bride. Sirius, Orion, and the Pleiades were
farther along in their western march, but
did their best to embellish that scene of
night as the entrancing picture arched over
the stillness of the Holy Land, where only
forty hours ago a scene of blood and riot
occurred in ignorant protest against the
coming of the Jews.
"We passed on through Gaza early, and
then on up through the plains and fields
of the old Philistines, and by 9 a. m.
we were in Ludd, the junction of the
Jaffa-Jerusalem road. My ticket was
direct for Haifa, and, as I was anxious to
get on my way, I had no special desire
this time to visit the Holy City. The train
waited for a half hour, during which time
I looked for, and longed to meet Elders
David O. McKay and Hugh J. Can-
non, who have been traveling around
the world visiting the missions and the
schools of the L. D. S. Church, but I was
disappointed in not meeting them there.
"On the train went, and I still looked
out of the windows studying the land of
Palestine and talking to a little Jewish
girl who came and sat with me and told
me a lot of her troubles. She was on her
way to Haifa in search of work. About
12:30, the train stopped. I carried my
satchels into the baggage room and left
them there a moment while I looked
around to inquire whether a ship was in
the harbor bound for Beirut, and turning
about, lo! I was face to face with the very
men whom I have hoped and prayed and
1050
IMPROVEMENT ERA
longed to meet — Brothers McKay and
Cannon. They came on the same train
from Ludd, passed within a few feet of
me there, but we did not see each other.
We were each just ready to leave for
different hotels, and two minutes time
would likely have separated us altogether.
We all thanked the Lord for that pleas-
ant meeting."
That afternoon and night we made an
auto ride to Beirut. The next night we
had crossed the Lebanon mountains, and
feasted, enroute, on the luscious clusters
from the vineyards of the Valley of
Leontes, and slept at Baalbek, where the
grand ruins of those ancient temples jre
still defying the penman to tell their com-
plete story. Another day's ride, November
6, brought us to the City of Aleppo,
in Northern Syria.
That was the beginning of work in
the third epoch in the history of this
mission.
It was closed the first time about 1895,
and the elders called away on account of
that terrible massacre of 50,000 Armenians
at that time. Prominent among the
workers of the first period were: F. F.
Hintze, Jacob Spori, J. M. Tanner, F. M.
Lyman, Jr., James Clove, E. S. Robinson,
Adolf Haag, Don C. Musser, John A.
Clark, Edgar D. Simmons (the three last
named died in the field), and Elders
Diterli, Christiansen, and Fred Huish. I
have not the records at hand so the list
may be incomplete.
The second term began with the call
of Elder A. H. Lund, F. F. Hintze,
Philip S. Maycock and A. L. Larson, to
open up the mission again in 189 7-8, and
with unabated zeal the work continued
until, following another sanguinary attack
on the helpless Christians in 1909, the
Church again saw fit to close the mission
and leave the work with local elders. Dur-
ing that twelve-year period, in addition
to the four men just named, were the
following missionaries: Joseph W. Booth
and wife, Mary R. Booth; J. Alma Hold-
away, Thomas P. Page, Albert Herman,
Lester W. Mangum, Reno W. Vance, John
T. Woodbury, S. Burton Newman, Mischa
Markow, Joseph Shepherd ■ Tuesher,
Charles Tuesher, Henry Tuesher, Loy
Woods, Joseph F. Thorup, William A.
Budge, I. Owen Horsfall, John D.
Stephenson, Joseph O. Phelps, Emil J.
Huber (died in the field), Don C. Love-
land, R. L. Dunkley, and Elders Clayton
and McAllister. This list also is from
memory of twenty years ago, and apology
is offered for incompleteness.
From October 1, 1909, until Novem-
ber 6, 1921, there were no elders from
Zion, and the local Saints were put to a
test of their faith and endurance while the
horrors of war and of deportation mad*
havoc of the Armenian people in general.
Up to this last-named date we were under
the name of the Turkish mission, but out
of the respect to the disrespect we had for
tyranny, the name wa9 changed to the
present one.
The story of how the surviving mem-
bers of the old Turkish mission were
rescued from their frightful conditions in
Aintab, in December, 1921, is ever fresh
in the minds of the Saints here today, for
they still celebrate yearly, the days of their
marvelous deliverance. The Church
records, the prize stories, and the printed
articles of that event are ever-ready wit-
nesses of the manifestation of God's power
and goodness to us on that occasion.
June 1, 1922, was a memorable day fot
the Armenian mission. Elder Owen W.
Woodruff was our guest at Aleppo, and a
baptismal service was held at the Jenge
Gardens, when seventy-three souls were
immersed in water. On July 4 some
twenty-five more were baptized, and since
then, on various occasions nearly one hun-
dred additional members have accepted the
Gospel ordinances. Our last official ad-
ditions of record, the blessing of two
children at Aleppo, last Fast day, made
the grand total of 238, but with deaths,
excommunications, etc., we number today
about 190.
Your humble servant has had the pleas-
ure and honor of seventeen years total in
the mission field. The task at times has
been a difficult one — almost like trying
to tear away old Timpanogos with a
tooth brush while a man with a team and
scraper endeavors to pile it up again.
MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS
105
Elder Earl B. Sncll came to the rescue
during 1923, and valiantly assisted in the
work from April until December. Then
in January, 1924, President David O. Mc-
Kay and wife, of the European mission,
came and presented this lonely missionary
with a help-meet in the person of his
equally lonely wife, Sister Mary R. Booth,
and she is with us unto this day.
In the last seven years we have had
only four adult deaths, but the infant
mortality has been higher. Our birth
rate during the past eighteen months has
Ghazarian, the very touching drama.
"Moroni," or "Where is the Truth?" de
picting the angel delivering the plates to
the Prophet Joseph Smith, was presented
three nights to large audiences.
The Relief Society, the Sunday School
and the M. I. A., have all made great
strides forward, but with it all some indi-
vidual members have made lamentable
backslips. We challenge the world to pro-
duce a more patient and excellent set of
peace-makers than our members here. They
excel simply because they have such un-
RAILWAY STATION IN HAIFA. PALESTINE, AT THE BACE OF MT. CARMEL. WHERE PRESIDENT
BOOTH MET ELDER DAVID O. MCKAY. OF THE COUNCIL OF THE TWELVE
been phenomenal — 70 to the year for
1000; and without controversy we claim
the prize for pulchritude among these little
children. They get more kisses and more
cuffs to the square hour than "kiddies"
really need.
Our little colony has made some won-
derful "hits" in drama work. The or-
iginal play. "Nephi," drew a crowd of
1000 people the first night, and was re-
peated twice thereafter. Later, with the
able assistance of Professor Antreas der
limited opportunities for practice among
this quarrelsome people.
Parents here want to marry their girls
off while they are yet children — from 12
to 15 years old; but they count it a
great shame for a man to kiss his own
wife at or after marriage. Is that a par-
adox? Recently a ten-year-old Jewess
was sold here for thirty pounds to a
Mohammedan, who married her before the
government officials could reach the place
to stop it.
1052
IMPROVEMENT ERA
Our mission headquarters are now in
Haifa, Palestine. We hope to have a
branch organized in Damascus soon, and
one in Beirut also.
The Book of Mormon, in limited num-
bers, is with us in English, Turkish,
French and German, and the same volume
in manuscript form is translated and
awaiting publication in Armenian, Os-
manli, Greek and Hebrew. There is an
urgent need for some of these right now,
as well as in Arabic, into which the
Book of Mormon has not yet been trans-
lated.
Now just a word in closing. Besides
Sister Booth and Elder Snell, the writer,
since he left London, October 2, 1921,
has seen on an average only one face from
Zion in 202 days, so you may be sure of
a warm welcome if you come to do mis-
sionary work. Our few visitors at head-
quarters have been, besides those already
named: Wm. E. Allen. Senator Wm. H.
King, Sterling B. Taylor, R. F. Beames,
James M. Armstrong, Dr. F. S. Harris
and President James E. Talmage.
Last October the latter sent a cable-
gram from Haifa to Salt Lake City, which
read: "Six missionaries for Palestine,"
and we have just received this consoling
reply, "You may think we have forgotten
you, but we have not." And so with
such assurance, I paraphrase the exclama-
tion of a loyal soldier: "In heaven's
name who would not proselyte for such
cause, where the harvest is so great and
the laborers are so few?"
The South American Mission
By President Reinhold Stoof
It has seldom been easy to introduce
the Gospel into a new country. Most
of the usual and many unusual difficulties
confronted Melvin J. Ballard, of the Coun-
cil of the Twelve. Rulon S. Wells and
Rey L. Pratt, of the First Council of
Seventy, upon their
arrival as mission-
aries in Buenos Aires,
December 6, 1925.
Two German breth-
ren, Wilhelm Fried-
richs and Emil
Hoppe. together
with their good
wives, had worked
diligently to spread
the truth in their
adopted country and
had succeeded in
gaining a few
friends. Their ap-
peal, sent from the
shores of the La
Plata river, "Come over and help us,"
was heard by the authorities in Utah, and
the three named brethren were sent
officially to open the South American
mission. A few days after their arrival
they had the privilege of baptizing six
friends, who were converted to the re-
stored Gospel by the labors of the German
brethren and sisters. All these converts
were of German descent.
On Christmas day,
1925, after a solemn
service in the Park 3
de Febrero, Elder
Melvin J. Ballard
dedicated the great
South American con-
tinent for the preach-
ing of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ.
A serious sickness
caused Elder Rulon
S. Wells to leave for
Utah on the 14th of
January, 1926, but
Brothers Ballard and
Pratt worked many
months in hard labor and in the midst of
great discouragements, and saw at the end
of their missionary activities, on the 23rd
of July, 1926, — the day of their depart-
MlSSIONARIES OF SOUTH AMERICA
MESSAGES FROM THE MISSIONS
1053
ure for Zion — a well established work:
therefore, the new missionaries from head-
quarters, who arrived in June, 1926,
found a good beginning for their labors.
Hard labor in a new soil! Many, very
many weeds in it! But, fortunately, weeds
serve a good purpose. They keep the
gardener's back lithe and will not allow
him the luxury of resting too much. There
are plenty of weeds to remove in this field
before our gardeners can reach good soil.
One finds but little prejudice against our
Church; but ignorance of the Bible and
indifference in religious matters are the
main obstacles which must be overcome.
Neither must one forget that 32% of the
population are illiterates in Argentina and
that a Bibie is very seldom found in a
house.
But the missionaries were soon to dis-
cover that among the Latin people as
many good and honest souls are to be
found as among the peoples of Europe. We
can be and are proud of our members
here, both Latin and European; they ful-
fil their obligations' faithfully.
Because of the obstacles already men-
tioned we cannot expect to make rapid
progress in the South American mission:
but we do believe that here. too. every
faithful missionary will reap the fruits of
his diligent labors and will richly enjoy
the blessings of our Heavenly Father in
his work.
There were six members here before the
mission in South America was opened.
Since that time, including the six converts
who were found through the efforts of
the two German members, and who were
baptized immediately after the arrival of
Elder Ballard, we have had thirty-
nine baptisms. Nearly half of this num-
ber were baptized during the last five
months. Considering the hard soil in
which we labor, we believe this to be
good progress.
The whole mission consists now of
sixty-five members; five of whom live in
Southern Brazil, and one in the Chaco, an
Argentine province. Thirteen blest chil-
dren are included in the membership.
Thirty-one are of German, twenty of
Argentine, seven of Italian, five of Span-
ish, one of Irish, and one of Yugoslavian
nationality.
We have a small group of fine-spirited
missionaries. Not only their work, but
also their personality has paved and will
pave the way for many an honest soul to
come into the Church. We extend a hearty
welcome to all missionaries who will join
us in our labors. We need them. There
is so much work before us that it often-
times frightens: us. First we want to build
up here in the Argentine capital a strong
and flourishing organization. In the
near future we want to establish a mission
among the big German colonies in South-
ern Brazil. And, then, we have another
very important duty to fulfil.
I am not sending my picture, as re-
quested. Instead I am sending a picture
of our faithful missionaries, in whose
hearts the Lord has planted a burning de-
sire to work for the salvation of their
fellow-men. They followed willingly the
call into the new and unknown land, the
newest field of labor in the Lord's great
vineyard. In the power and authority
of Him who called them into His service
they are striving to build a solid founda-
tion for a flourishing mission.
All hail to them who help our mis-
sionaries to perform their important duties.
Our hearts are filled with gratitude for
them. We all feel with our fellow-mis-
sionary, Elder Heber Milton Clegg. who
expressed his gratitude in the following
poem:
WE
The work done in the mission field will
bring a large reward,
Assistance rendered one poor soul is noticed
by our Lord;
A missionary's recompense is joy on
heaven's side,
And then because he did his share that
joy is justified.
And what about the mother, with her
mission, far away.
Who reared that boy for God's great call,
inspiring him each day;
1054
IMPROVEMENT ERA
MERLIN STOOF. YOUNGEST SOUTH AMERICAN MISSIONARY
Who now prepares her younger sons that
they, too, might fulfil
The chance that's sure to come to preach,
from house-top and from hill?
And what about the father, who much
more than does his share,
Who works and makes a sacrifice to keep
his son out there;
Who tries to spare him anything that
might discomfort give,
And helps him with advice and love a
better life to live?
His brothers and his sisters go without
what they have had.
It means more patches, fewer shows; yet
they are all so glad
To do their bes>t to help the work out
where their brother is
That ne'er a hint of cares at home are
spoken of as "his."
We can't all tract and talk and preach —
there're other things to do,
The mission is abroad and home, each does
his part, is true.
O mother, father, sister, brother, sweet-
heart, and friends too,
The recompense is not for one — you must
say "we," not "you."
Brother Ballard implored in his prayer
of dedication the blessings of the Almighty
God upon the descendants of Lehi, the
Indians of this continent. Millions of
them live here, downtrodden, in a state
of semi-slavery. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ will redeem them from much of
their misery. We are anxiously looking
forward for that day when this great work
will begin. This labor will truly be, in
every respect, a Savior's work. Youth of
Zion, here is something that should ap-
peal to you! Come with all your talents
and power, where the hardest problems are
to be solved, right here in SOUTH
AMERICA!
"When you read the revelations, or when you hear the will of the Lord concerning
you, for your own sakes never receive that with a doubtful heart."- — Brigham Young.
DITO
A Forgotten Voice
Barely four score years have passed since
Samuel F. B. Morse sent over the telegraph
line between Washington and Baltimore
the now historic message, "What hath God
wrought." To be exact, this was on May
24. 1844, thirty-four days before the
martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Prior thereto, messages, no matter what
their urgency, were sent by mail or by spe-
cial messengers.
Steamships and steam locomotives were
invented, or at least came into practical
commercial use. some years before the tele-
graph. Robert Fulton built his first steam-
boat model in 1802. and his first large
boat was given a trial on the Seine, in
France, two years later, but proved too
slow and unwieldy. On August 7, 1807,
less than two years after the Prophet's
birth, Fulton's Clermont ran successfully
on the Hudson. George Stephenson drove
his first locomotive in 1814 at the Killing-
worth colliery, in England. Naturally it
was imperfect. In the contest between lo-
comotives on the Liverpool-Manchester
line in 1829, his engine, "Rocket," was
an easy victor, attaining the. at that time,
phenomenal speed of thirty-two miles an
hour.
Intervening years have brought marvel-
ous changes. Now scientists are proclaim-
ing that an exact reproduction of the
sender's penmanship — delivering a
facsimile of the original telegram — is al-
most an accomplished fact; and all are
familiar with the improvements in steam-
ships and in railway trains since they en-
tered the fields of transportation.
Within the memory of men still in
their prime, telephones, automobiles and
airplanes have come into existence. These
men will remember when such things were
considered chimerical dreams, viewed as
less likely of fulfillment than the oft-re-
peated suggestion that we shall shortly be
able to communicate with the inhabitants
of Mars. Now a telephone is found in al-
most every home and one can speak across
the continent, even across the ocean, and it
is possible at the same time to see the per
son to whom one is talking. Telephones
not only transmit messages, but they are
now used to send pictures. Automobiles
are so common as seriously to menace the
lives of pedestrians. The airplane, whirring
noisily overhead, no longer attracts a
curious upward glance. Between dawn
and dusk one of our own Utah boys has
flown from New York to San Francisco,
and now men and even women fly in
heavier-than-air machines from America to
Europe.
Children, still young, have watched the
development of the motion picture and the
radio. We not only see the actors on the
silver screen, but we also hear them speak.
A man in Salt Lake delivered a sermon
over the radio which his son in Los Angeles
distinctly heard. Within the last few days,
newspapers have estimated that forty mil-
lion people listened to the acceptance
speeches of the two presidential nominees.
They were heard as far away as New Zea-
land, and those in that remote land who
tuned in heard the speakers' words a frac-
tion of a second before the people on the
extreme edge of the crowd who were ac-
tually in their presence.
That we may soon tune in for motion
pictures in our own homes as we now do
for the concerts and lectures which come
over the air is now almost an accomplished
fact. Recent experiments by the Westing-
house Electric Company indicate that this
has passed the imaginary and almost the
experimental stage and is now being done.
It prompts the prediction that a far-away
tourist will soon be able to project a
motion picture of himself into his own
home.
1056
IMPROVEMENT ERA
No vision of man's power to achieve is
too fanciful to seem beyond belief. Ap-
parently there are no limits to his possi-
bilities.
Many people feel that an unreasonable
demand is being put upon their credulity
when they are asked to believe that the
Almighty has spoken to man, that prayers
are answered, or that the sick are healed.
They cannot believe that through a divine
whisper or by other means the Lord can
give to a humble supplicant a positive
knowledge of certain unseen things.
Joseph Smith claimed that in the spring
of 1820, he saw and spoke with the Father
and the Son, but because this declaration
contradicted their own experiences most
people felt it could not be true. That man
can project his voice or his vision around
the world they do not doubt, though they
themselves, perhaps, have never done it.
Toward the middle of the seventeenth
century, the French government imprisoned
as a madman Salomon de Caus, the first
man, as far as we now know, to suggest
the use of steam to propel a vessel. To-
ward the middle of the nineteenth century,
a mob in the United States killed Joseph
Smith, the first man in this dispensation
to say that the Almighty is willing and
able to communicate with his children.
There is a close relationship between the
impelling spirit in the commission of both
these crimes.
According to the ideas of an appallingly
large number of present-day people, there
is but one Being in the universe who is
limited; that Being is God, called, by these
same people, the Almighty. Man, the
Creator's mortal handiwork, can speak or
fly or see across a continent or an ocean;
he can perform miracles undreamed of a
generation ago; he can overcome nearly all
the formerly accepted laws of nature; but,
according to men's notions, his immortal
Creator sits, majestic and glorious but im-
potent, surrounded by barriers beyond
which he cannot pass.
The venerable Sir Oliver Lodge declared
in a recent address that "science, with all
its great work, has not eliminated the ac-
cumulated witness of the ages."
The Latter-day Saints rejoice in the
comforting assurance that the God of
heaven and earth is still mightier than frail
mortals. They refuse to ignore or mini-
mize his divine power. If man's voice can
be heard around the world, the Lord can
speak from heaven; if Lindbergh can fly
across the Atlantic and appear in Paris,
our Heavenly Father can manifest himself
to his servants; if a man in London can
see the person with whom he is talking in
New York, the Creator can see and under-
stand the hearts of his children. God is
still what the word ALMIGHTY denotes,
all-powerful, omnipotent, and it would be
a most wholesome thing for the world if it
would cultivate the same grateful spirit of
acknowledgment as that embodied in the
first telegraphic message, "What hath God
wrought." In this age of unbelief it is as
the voice of one crying in the wilder-
ness.— C.
Benjamin Disraeli wound up his maiden speech, which was a dismal failure, in
the House of Commons as follows: "Now, Mr. Speaker, we see the philosophical pre-
judices of Man. (Laughter and cheers.) I respect cheers, even when they come from
the mouth of a political opponent. (Renewed laughter.) I think, sir, (Hear! Hear!
and repeated cries of Question!) I am not at all surprised, sir, at the reception 1
have met with. (Continued laughter.) I have begun several things many times
(laughter), and I have always succeeded at last. (Question!) Aye, sir, and though
I sit down now, the time will come when you will hear me."
PRIES
All matters pertaining to the Aaronic Priesthood in this department are prepared under the
direction of the Presiding Bishopric.
Letters to Ward Bishoprics
The following letters, sent to bishoprics
of wards throughout the Church by the
Presiding Bishopric, under date of Septem-
ber 1 and September 13, respectively, are
self-explanatory:
Dear Brethren:
It has been expected that the weekly
meetings of the Aaronic Priesthood, at
least, would be held regularly during the
entire year. However, in view of the fact
that in some of the wards and stakes such
meetings have not been held regularly dur-
ing the past summer, we desire to call your
attention to the importance of the work
to be done during the remainder of this
year.
As you are aware, the meetings of the
Priesthood and the M. I. A. are now co-
ordinated so as to be held on the same
evening. The plans already outlined for
the Aaronic Priesthood for this year are
given in the booklet issued by the Presiding
Bishopric at the beginning of the year, en-
titled "Instructions Relative to Weekly
Ward Meetings of Acting Ward Teachers
and all members of the Aaronic Priest-
hood," andjor the Melchizcdek Priesthood
in the booklet issued by the Council of the
Twelve, March 20, 1928, entitled "Sug-
gestions for Quorums of Priesthood and
M. I. A."
If there has been any slackening of the
work and activity of the Aaronic Priest-
hood during the summer, it is very greatly
desired that this work should now be taken
up with renewed energy and system in
order to carry forward vigorously during
the fall and winter season. In order that
there may be clear understanding on the
part of everyone associated with the
Aaronic Priesthood as to the plan of pro-
cedure for the meetings, instructions and
activities thereof, we are reiterating here
the instructions previously given. Will
you therefore kindly follow these instruc-
tions and also transmit this information to
the supervisors of the Aaronic Priesthood
in your ward. If you do not have suf-
ficient copies of the "Instructions" men-
tioned, if you will kindly advise us, we
shall be glad to furnish you with additional
copies for the use of the Bishopric and the
supervisors of your ward. We would sug-
gest that you hold a meeting at once with
your supervisors, for the thorough con-
sideration of Aaronic Priesthood work.
It is expected that the weekly meetings
of the Priesthood and M. I. A. will be
held on Tuesday evenings. They will
consist of an officers' meeting to be held at
7 p. m., as given in the instructions, and
the regular meeting of all the members
of the Priesthood and Y. L. M. I. A. at
7:30 p. m. After the opening exercises of
the regular Priesthood-M. I. A. meeting
(7:30 to 7:45 p. m.) , the Priesthood will
separate for class or quorum work. At
that time the order of business for the
Aaronic Priesthood quorums or classes
should be carried out as indicated on page
8 of "Instructions." However, the time
allowed for the quorum or class exercises
will permit of more discussion than is in-
dicated in those "Instructions." It is very
desirable, therefore, that after the indi-
vidual activities of the quorum members
have been checked and the social and
fraternal interest of the quorum considered,
as there indicated, the time allowed for the
discussion of the topic assigned for that
particular meeting should be most effec-
tively used.
The topics to be covered during each
month of this year are given in that same
book of "Instructions." If these topics
have not been discussed systematically thus
far this year, we would urge that two or
three topics in order be given each week
during the remainder of the year, because
1058
IMPROVEMENT ERA
we feel that every member of the Priest-
hood should, if possible, be familiar with
these matters. If, however, topics have al-
ready been presented in their order thus far
this year, then it will be necessary to ex-
pand the remainder of the lessons in order
to occupy effectively the time allowed. In
a separate statement, therefore, which is
hereto attached, we have indicated how a
topic might be enlarged upon. Where,
therefore, the remaining topics only are to
be given from now until the end of this
year, we would suggest either that the
bishopric assign this matter of developing
the lessons in advance to a committee, or
else that the matter be referred to the
Stake Presidency and Stake Aaronic Priest-
hood Committee, with a request that they
outline the lessons in more detail for all
of the wards of your stake.
In connection with the lesson work and
the activities of the Priesthood, it is very
important that the booklet of "Instruc-
tions" before mentioned should be care-
fully read and followed by the bishopric
and the Aaronic Priesthood supervisors.
The purpose of the plan and procedure
therein outlined is to promote the training
and activities of the Aaronic Priesthood
most effectively in order that every mem-
ber of the Aaronic Priesthood in your
ward shall be thoroughly active in the
duties of his important calling.
Assuring you of our desire to cooperate
in every way possible to secure the best re-
sults, we are, with cordial wishes,
Sincerely your brethren.
The Presiding Bishopric,
By Sylvester Q. Cannon.
Dear Brethren:
In about two weeks you will receive a
special copy of the Improvement Era. Al-
though we presume you are already a sub-
scriber to this magazine, this copy is sent
with the suggestion that you have the sec-
ond article, entitled "Speed and the Spirit,"
read by all the members of your Lesser
Priesthood. We believe that this story,
true in every detail, if read by boys in the
formative period of their lives, will bring
results which will well repay the trouble of
putting it before them.
We join with the Y. M. M. I. A. officers
in the hope that our young boys will be-
come regular readers of the Era, and we
take this opportunity of reminding you
that this magazine is the organ of the
Priesthood, as well as of the Mutual, and
that through it our official messages re-
garding the Lesser Priesthood are sent. It
also contains the messages of the Mel-
chizedek Priesthood, and should be avail-
able to the members of every Latter-day
Saint family.
Sincerely your brethren,
Sylvester Q. Cannon,
David A. Smith,
John Wells,
Presiding Bishopric.
Broadcast good thoughts and good words freely. Give them a chance to ride the
ether, they have life in them.
'Tis not only how much you say, but the tone of utterance as well.
There are two ways of looking at everything, the way of the broadcaster and the
way of the listener-in.
Be natural — try to be what you admire rather than an imitation of it.
To the laborer honor is always due, for labor is always honorable.
One does not need a battlefield on which to prove his heroism. There are
masters of all conditions and they respond with equal cheerfulness to all demands of daily
living.
— Dorothy C. Retsloff.
Change in the Y. M. M. I. A. Office
O
UR MUTUALS and the
Era are deeply indebted to
Elder Moroni Snow, who,
from the summer of 1909 to
1928, served as secretary and
treasurer of the general organiza-
tion and as assistant business
manager of the magazine. Broth-
er Snow's health has not been the
best of late years, and he recently
retired from active association
with the general office, though he
still remains a member of the
General Board.
An outstanding character-
istic of this faithful man is his
devotion to duty; he was a veri-
table "watch-dog of the treas-
ury,'' and in spite of failing
health carried uncomplainingly
the heavy burdens of his office
with efficiency and dispatch. He
leaves the position which he filled
so creditably with the love and
confidence of all his associates.
Brother Snow must find great
satisfaction in contemplating the
splendid service he has rendered
the M. I. A. during these long years. Because of his acquaintance
with the work, he will still be able to give valuable assistance to the
Board. All Mutual workers will join with us in invoking the
blessings of the Lord upon this worthy man.
The work formerly done by him has been distributed among
other members of the present office force, under the direction of
Oscar A. Kirkham; — O. B. Peterson, in addition to other duties,
is sustained as general treasurer, and Alma H. Pettigrew will take
care of the general correspondence and attend to the details of
Era subscriptions.
All correspondence pertaining to the organization should be
directed to the General Superintendency Y. M. M. I. A., 47 East
South Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah.
General Superintendency, Y. M. M. I. A.
MUTUAL WORB^,
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT
The New Handbook
It is an implement for effective action.
No enterprise can succeed well without tak-
ing advantage of up-to-date devices. Rel-
atively little more than floundering
progress without clear aims and good
means of reaching them. The Hand Book
is an indispensable means of M. I. A.
advancement.
Every stake board, every ward pres-
idency, and every committee should make
the obtaining and the using of the Hand
Book an immediate problem. Years of
experience has proved that in stakes and
wards where the Hand Book has been rec
ognized as a helpful guide, the M. I. A.
work has been well to the front.
There are three attitudes any one of
which may be taken toward this or any
other special preparation for onwardness:
First: The attitude of indifference,
and where officers assume this attitude the
members are deprived of what is due them
and the officers unconsciously become a
hindrance to the organization.
Second: The attitude of acceptance. In
this attitude officers speak well of and
advocate the use of the Hand Book and
then leave it to make its way to success or
failure.
Third: The attitude of appreciation.
This attitude gives the new device an of-
ficial examination, and a fair trial in the
fields for which it was prepared. The
Hand Book under this attitude will be ap-
preciated as a source of reference at officers'
meetings and a guide for leaders in the
M. I. A. activities.
It is expected the Hand Book will be
judiciously supplemented by alert officers
and efficient teachers, but it is not expected
that it will be substituted without the ap-
proval of the General Boards.
Genealogical Work
In answer to numerous questions con-
cerning the course in genealogy which is
given by the Genealogical Society of Utah
as one of the courses in the Adult Depart-
ment of the M. I. A., the general officers
of M. I. A. and the Genealogical Society
of Utah submit the following information:
While the course in genealogy may be
given in practically all of the associations,
it is urged that at least one of the other
three courses be given also. While for
the course taken in genealogy the same
score may be given in the efficiency report
as for the work in any other course, it is
felt that the Adult Department will not
be accomplishing its full purpose unless
classes other than genealogy be conducted.
The teachers of the genealogical class,
selected by the Genealogical Committee
with the approval of the bishopric, are to
meet with the officers and teachers as a
part of the M. I. A.
Outlines of the course in genealogy are
now ready for distribution, and may be
obtained from the Genealogical Society of
Utah, 47 E. So. Temple Street. Paper
copies cost 50c each and cloth copies 75c,
with a 10% discount if twelve copies or
more are ordered.
Suggestions for Conjoint Program
Sunday Evening, November 4, 19 28
General Theme: "The Freedom of the 1. Singing: "Know this that every soul
Franchise.'
free."
MUTUAL WORK
1061
2. Invocation: Y. M. M. I. A.
3. Duet: "Hail to the Brightness of
Zion's glad morning" — Y. M. and
Y. L. M. I. A.
4. Reading or Memory Rendition —
Young Lady — of the following:
"The Law — It has honored us: let
us honor it." — Daniel Webster, famous
American lawyer, statesman and orator.
"Where the law ends, there tyranny
begins." — William Pitt, eminent English
statesman, staunch friend of the American
colonies, whose cause he championed in
Parliament, saying, "If I were an Amer-
ican, as I am an Englishman, while a
foreign troop remained upon my land, I
would never give up my arms, — Never!
Never! Never!"
The Lord said to Joseph Smith, the
prophet, "Let no man break the laws of
the land; for he that keepeth the laws of
God hath no need to break the laws of the
land."
For home reading: Section 134, Doctrine
and Covenants.
5. Presentation of the Slogan by Y. M.
M. I. A.
6. Sentiment: "More ballots, less bul-
lets."— Young man, 5 minutes.
7. Sentiment: "Our Church vote a
pledge of loyalty." — Young lady, 5
minutes.
8. Address: "Franchise and Freedom" —
a. In the Church.
b. In the State.
— best speaker available.
9. Singing: "For the strength of the
hills we bless thee."
10. Benediction — A Patriarch or High
Priest if present.
A Worthy Example
The recently organized San Francisco
stake is showing commendable activity
along lines of Priesthood and M. I. A.
work. In the last few weeks the officers
of that stake have sent in 115 Era sub-
scriptions, fully 5% of their population,
and thereby becoming the first in the
Church to have reached that quota. The
correspondence indicates that assisting
corps of workers were largely responsible
in obtaining these results. J. Mark Clark
is superintendent and Theo. G. Fuegg
secretary. They set an example which all
stakes can profitably follow.
ADULT DEPARTMENT
The Romance of An Old Play House
By Dr. Adam S. Bennion
A strange sanctity attaches to all his-
tory— a record of what once was and is
not. Realitv stalks there and Romance
makes holiday — a certain tinge of mel-
lowed sadness colors the borders of the
pages.
If these things are true of history gen-
erally, they are even more strikingly char-
acteristic of the Chronicle of the life his-
tory of a theatre. This institution, favored
abode of the muses, is the altar of human
emotions. Love, laughter, and sorrow all
crowd through its portals — every nook
and cranny is crowded full of memories.
The theatre is the actor's chapel in which
men's souls may be "carried up" to higher
levels.
And among theatres, what more historic
one could be fancied than our own Theatre
of the Mountains — for years a dramatic
1062
IMPROVEMENT ERA
oasis on the long, dreary stretches from the
Mississippi to the Pacific.
Fortunate, indeed, are we and our for-
bears to have had it — fortunate are we
and our children to have its story so won-
derfully preserved as we are privileged
to have it in this richly unique book, The
Romance of an Old Play House, from the
illuminating and kindly pen of George
D. Pyper.
We, his friends, have known of his rare
gift as a lyric tenor, of his keen sense of
justice tempered by mercy as a police
judge; of his grace and judgment as the
manager of a theatre; and of his genius
as a leader and friend of children. We
have loved and appreciated him for all
of these — we now salute him as author.
He has given to the world one of the
finest volumes ever to come out of Utah.
He has builded for the Salt Lake Theatre
and for himself a monument such as his
friends would have loved to build and
could not.
Notable books aren't just written — they
are soul generated; they are typed per-
sonality. The Romance of an Old Play
House makes live again the men and
women who made it famous. One reads
the book to feel with Paderewski as he
gave one of his concerts in the Taber-
nacle;
"I feel like the pioneers of this coun-
try are round about me tonight, that the
builders of this mighty structure are here."
What a theme runs through the book!
In a strange sort of way the very heart
of "Mormonism" is to be found in the
Salt Lake Theatre. Think of the dramatic
power of the Prophet — his life — drama
from the beginning to end — a drama draw-
ing the spotlight of heaven yet having
its climax in the darkness of Carthage.
Or follow the trek of the covered wa-
gon; then live in fancy the dramatic
struggle to build an empire from a wilder-
ness.
Little wonder the drama found a wel-
come in the great amphitheatre of the
Rockies.
What a boon the old Play House must
have been!
Builded in 1862, eight years before
the completion of the Union Pacific rail-
road into Salt Lake — it became, in the
language of Henry Miller, "A Cathedral in
a Desert."
And here is the story — with all of its
backgrounds, its local color, its struggles,
its triumphs — all crowded into richly con-
crete pages — a story that grips — strong
as fiction — more dynamic because it is
real.
In it the reader lives again the life
of '47. Then came the 50's with their
early beginnings in social entertainment.
The Bowery-Social Hall — Camp Floyd
Theatre, Bowring's Theatre. Finally the
Theatre itself. You fairly fancy your-
self at the opening performance. Then
a glimpse of the men and women who
have made Utah's histrionic chronicle. The
local stock companies, the early traveling
troupes, and finally the famous actors and
actresses who represent American art at its
best. You feel as if you have been in the
company of the great when you lay the
book down.
And what richness of detail in the
background. Early stage practices — quaint
advertisements — tickets and their strange
purchases — eccentricities of actors, famous
and otherwise — social gossip — stage-hand
comedy — business hazards — transportation
difficulties — all these interwoven in the
fabric of a dramatic achievement little
short of the marvelous. All these make
the volume a book which you really are
loathe to put down.
And the author! I met him first under
the spell of his singing — a gift which for
more than a quarter of a century carried
him into the hearts of people. He has
largely given over singing now — but the
song has just overflowed into the soul of
the man. It all comes back through the
pages of his book. His kindliness is there
— his gentility — his sense of values with
a consequent proportion — his clarity, with
a lucidity of style that makes reading a
pleasure — his loyalty to his friends — and
withal his great love for his Church, and
the men who constitute its leadership.
Thirty years ago, in answer to a ques-
tion put by President Heber J. Grant,
George D. Pyper had said, "I would rather
MUTUAL WORK
1063
be manager of the Salt Lake Theatre than
anything else on earth." For thirty years
he has fairly lived in that theatre. He has
responded to its every mood. Little won-
der that in speaking of it he quotes
Ruskin:
"The glory of building is not in its
stones, nor in its gold. Its glory is in
its age and in that deep sense of voiceful-
ness, of stern watching, of mysterious
sympathy, nay, even of approval or con-
demnation which we feel in the walls
that have long been washed by the passing
waves of Humanity."
For thirty years, George D., you have
been splashing those walls with the man-
agerial sweep of your kindly hand. And
now as you walk back from the tide to-
ward the shore of memory we are grate-
ful that you give us your story — that in
part we can come to appreciate what you
so notably have achieved.
As a source book it is invaluable in its
store of dramatic fact; as a companion-
able book it is one of those friendly vol-
umes which it is a joy to have about.
A host of friends will welcome a volume
that leaves a twinkle in the eye, a lump in
the throat, a heightened beat of the heart,
and a fuller sense of the really worth-
while things in life.
Ten Outstanding Magazine Articles
Selected by a Council of Librarians
August. 1928
"The Irritating Efficacy of English Crim-
inal Justice," George W. Alger in At-
lantic Monthly.
The difference between the English and
the American laws are more impressive to
Mr. Alger than the similarities. He dis-
cusses some of the differences in connection
with the criminal law and its enforce-
ment.
"Is Socialism Dead?" Will Durant in
Century.
A discussion in which the disillusioned
radical is displayed and the hint dropped
that Socialism might come, not through
men suffering from poverty but from men
empowered by wealth and enlightened by
education.
"Strange Things Are Happening." Fred-
erick P. Keppel in Century.
In which the President of the Carnegie
Foundation views the significant trends in
education and hazards a challenging
"guess" as to the future — when the centre
of educational interest will be the education
of the adult.
"Is Western Civilization in Peril?" Charles
A Beard in Harper's Magazine.
A distinguished historian recognizes
frankly the dangers which confront our
present civilization, but comes to the con-
clusion that, based on machinery, its foun-
dations are too firm for it to perish.
"The New Radicalism," Raymond Gram
Swing in Harper's Magazine.
The author discusses the radical trend
which has taken place since the War in
European thought and legislation and ex-
plains why a program which contrasts with
the conservative policy of America is
necessary.
"When is Business Worth While?" Henry
Ford in collaboration with Samuel
Crowther in Magazine of Business.
An exceedingly penetrating discussion of
marketing and competition that challenges
some of the deepest-rooted traditions of
business, by that great industrialist, Henry
Ford, written in collaboration with Samuel
Crowther.
"Has Aviation a Future — A Debate."
Captain Dewar vs. Commander Byrd
in Forum.
Will airlines of the future become rivals
of the railroads or is the aeroplane destined
to be only an emergency carrier? A fa-
1064
IMPROVEMENT ERA
mous aviator answers a conservative though
air-minded Briton.
"Poisson Bleu," James C. Gilbert in Field
and Stream.
This story of the author's 3500 mile
journey to catch the famous Arctic gray-
ling, presents a vivid description of the
heart of Alaska, a country of superlative
beauty and grandeur, strange customs and
interesting life.
"God Rest You Merry Gentlemen," Stru-
thers Burt in Scribner's.
The motion pictures are facing a crisis,
declares this author, who defends "boob
audiences" and accuses producers of stupi-
dity as well as cynicism and hypocrisy,
holding them responsible for censorship.
"Feedpipes for Skyscrapers," Ernest K.
Lindley in Review of Reviews.
New York City is tunneling under
itself t o build a vast new subway sys-
tem. Built without interrupting street
traffic, the new system is to relieve con-
gestion in present subways. But new sky-
scrapers are rising to congest it in turn.
The Citizenship Projects
It is to be hoped that every Adult group
in the Church will plan to devote one
Tuesday each month to a consideration
of the Citizenship Project, detail outlines
of which can be found on page 224 of the
new Hand Book.
We recommend that the wards concen-
trate for the immediate present on Project
A (Law Observance), leaving Project B
(Voting) until after the Christmas holi-
days.
The logical first step in the Law Ob-
servance project is a precise determination
of the actual nature and extent of law-
breaking in your community. Specifically,
this involves the collection and tabulation
of such statistics as are available in the
office of the sheriff (and chief of police),
the public prosecutor and the courts (city,
county, district, juvenile, etc.) Figures
should be secured wherever possible to
show :
1. The actual number and disposition of:
a. Violations reported to the police.
b. Cases prosecuted by the police and
prosecutor.
c. Cases dealt with by the courts.
2. Kinds of offenses committed.
3. Age, sex, domicile, nationality, etc., of
the offenders.
4. Increase (or decrease) in delinquency
and crime from month to month or
from year to year.
It will readily be appreciated that ac-
curate data such as the above are funda-
mental to a consideration of such questions
as the following:
1. How much crime and delinquency is
there in our community?
2. What age-groups, sex, nationality, class,
etc., contribute most to law-breaking
in this community?
3. What types of delinquency are on the
increase? What, specifically, is the ex-
tent of auto-stealing, bootlegging, burg-
lary, etc? And how effective is the
treatment following conviction?
4. What proportion of offenders reported
to the police are (a) prosecuted, (b)
tried, (c) found guilty, (d) serve a
sentence, etc.?
In securing the statistics here referred
to, it will be well for wards to cooperate
with one another wherever possible. At
the next Union Meeting, for example, ar-
rangements might be made for two repre-
sentatives from each ward Adult Depart-
ment to serve on a committee charged with
the task of contacting the appropriate of-
ficials and securing the necessary data for
later discussion and analysis. In the larger
towns it will be desirable for several stakes
to work together.
MUTUAL WORK
COMMUNITY ACTIVITY
DEPARTMENT
This Season's Work
The work of the Community Activity
Committee for the present year has in it
much which should interest the members
and stimulate them toward successful ac-
complishment. The outline for this de-
partment is delightfully varied -and yet
specific enough to make possible thorough
study of every phase of leisure-time ac-
tivities assigned them.
During the season there will be a part
of the Mutual Work section of the Era and
Journal devoted to this department. Sug-
gestions along lines of drama, dancing,
motion pictures, home recreation, reading
course, project, slogan and twelve recre-
ational events will be offered, and every-
thing possible will be done to assist mem-
bers of this new M. I. A. committee to
get a clear understanding of their duties
and methods of carrying out their assign-
ments.
The first step to be taken is in the
study of the field of leisure-time activity
of community groups. The new M. I. A
Hand Book is in reality a textbook pre-
senting material to assist in the study of
every field. While every member of the
Community Activity Committee will not
be expert in every line, still all may be
informed in a general way regarding th.
various fields assigned them.
Drama is discussed comprehensively in
the Executive Department, page 61; Com-
munity Activity Department, pages 151
165; Dramatic Urge, pages 403-433
Within these pages is ample material for
study of this field and should provide an
excellent basis upon which to build th:
dramatic program for a ward.
Dancing, Motion Pictures and Home Re
creation are taken up comprehensively, and
should be studied thoroughly.
Begin the work of the season by famil
iarizing yourselves with your own pari
of the new Hand Book.
Principles of Parliamentary Law
Lesson for October 9
(Suggestive text: Parliamentary Law,
by Paul, The Century Co., N. Y.)
Wherever a group of people assemble
together to carry on business there is need
of rules and regulations to enable the as-
sembly to proceed in an orderly fashion in
the process of accomplishing the work to
be performed. Yet no rules can operate
successfully without an organization.
Hoiv to organize. After the people
of an assembly have gathered together at
the appointed hour, if there is no one in
authority, one of the members should rise
to his feet and say, "The meeting will
come to order. I move that Mr. B act
as chairman of this meeting." If his
motion is seconded, it should be put to a
vote, and if passed Mr. B should take the
chair. If his motion is lost, he should call
for other nominations for a temporary
chairman. If several nominations are
made, the vote is put on the first one
nominated and if that one is not elected,
on the next one, until a temporary chair-
man is elected.
The newly elected temporary chairman
1066
IMPROVEMENT ERA
should proceed at once to have a tempor-
ary secretary elected to keep minutes of
the meeting. This is done by calling for
nominations and voting on nominees.
Upon being elected the temporary secre-
tary should take his place near the tempor-
ary chairman, prepared to take minutes
of the meeting.
The temporary organization is now
complete, and the assembly can proceed
to business. If other temporary officers
are deemed necessary they can be elected
in the same manner as the secretary.
The chair first announces or causes to
be announced the purpose of the meeting,
and takes up whatever business is neces-
sary at the time. As soon as possible,
however, he should proceed to perfect a
permanent organization. To do this, a
constitution and some by-laws must first
be drawn up. This is done by having the
assembly elect a committee of three or
five members to draw up a constitution
and by-laws and to report at a later meet-
ing.
(See M. I. A. Hand Book, page 259,
for the general form of a constitution.)
A constitution should contain the fol-
lowing provisions:
1. The name of the organization.
2. The purpose of the organization —
preamble. (See the constitution of the
United States for a good preamble.)
3. The qualifications for membership.
4. The names of offices in the organ-
ization and the number holding each of-
fice. (The M Men ward officers should
be a president, vice-president and secre-
tary-treasurer.)
5. The name of and numbers on each
permanent committee in the organization.
(M Men committees are (a) athletic, (b)
social, (c) literary-musical, (d) member-
ship, (e) slogan-project.)
6. Time of regular meetings.
7. Provisions for amendment.
By-laws should contain provisions as
follows:
1. The duties of officers.
2. Responsibilities of permanent com-
mittees.
3. Mode of nominating and electing
officers.
4. Methods of admitting new members.
5. Mode of filling vacancies.
6. Time and place of meetings.
7. Provisions for amending the by-
laws.
The commitee appointed to draw up a
constitution should write out a proposed
constitution and by-laws and at the ap-
pointed time be ready to report. At that
time the chair should call for the report
of the committee. The chairman of the
committee should arise and read the report,
hand it to the temporary chairman, and
before taking his seat, should move that
the report be adopted. When seconded,
the temporary chairman of the meeting
should then direct the secretary to read
the constitution, article by article, begin-
ning with the first. After the secretary has
read each article, the chair should ask,
"Are there any amendments?" If an
amendment is proposed it should be acted
on at once. If none is proposed the next
article should be read, etc. After each
article has been read and amended, then
the preamble should be read and treated in
the same manner as the articles. After this
is done, the chair asks, 'Are there any
more amendments to any part of the con-
stitution?" If there are, they should be
heard and acted on. If none, he should
call for a vote on the adoption of the
constitution as follows: "All in favor of
adopting the constitution as read and
amended say 'aye.' All opposed, 'no.' "
"The 'ayes' have it and the constitution
is adopted."
The by-laws should be treated in exactly
the same manner as the constitution.
At the completion of the adoption of
the by-laws and constitution the per-
manent officers of the organization should
be elected in accordance with the rules in
the by-laws, and the standing (permanent)
committees should be named. When this
is done, the regular business of the organ-
ization can go forward.
MUTUAL WORK
1067
Lessons for October 16 and October 23
Parliamentary law, as it is generally
understood, is a group of laws governing
the procedure of democratic assemblies
where the members have the right to par-
ticipate in the business before the house.
A chairman or president always pre-
sides at a meeting. Before a member speaks
he should rise to his feet and address the
"chair." ("chair" is the name adopted for
the presiding officer) as follows: "Mr.
Chairman." If it is in order for him to
speak, the chair should call him by name
and give him permission to talk. If more
than one person addresses the chair at the
same time, the chair designates which shall
have the 'floor. No one should make a
motion or speak to a motion without per-
mission from the chair. Recognition from
the chair need not be obtained, however,
when a motion is seconded.
Business in an assembly is brought be-
fore the house through motions, which
are nothing more nor less than statements
of the proposition to be considered by the
assembly. If. for example, some member
of an M Men class would like the
group to go on a hike, he would arise to
his feet and say "Mr. Chairman," (or
"Mr. President") "I move that the M
Men of this'ward go on a hike to
next Saturday morning." If there is some-
one else present who would also like to
take a hike, he would say "I second the
motion." All main motions, such as this
one, require a second. In other words, at
least two people in the group must want
something before the group will be called
on to discuss it. Every member has the
right to make a motion.
After a motion has been made and sec-
onded, the chair should say: "It has been
moved and seconded that the M Men of
this ward go on a hike to next
Saturday morning. Are you ready for the
question!"' When he says that, the body
may either talk on the motion or call for
a vote on it. By saying "Are you ready
for the question?" the chair gives all pres-
ent a right to discuss it. Anyone, after
obtaining permission from the chair, may
talk for or against it. No person should
be allowed to talk twice on the question
until everyone has had an opportunity to
talk once. When it has been discussed
enough anyone can "call for the question,"
which means that he calls for a vote on it.
The vote is obtained by the chair's saying
"All in favor of the motion say 'aye.'
Those opposed, 'no.' "
Any main motion may be amended. For
example, if some other M Men wanted to
go on the hike but wanted to go on Mon-
day instead of Saturday, he would rise to
his feet and obtain permission from the
chair and say: "I move that the motion
be amended to read that we go on a hike
on Monday instead of Saturday." If sec-
onded, then it becomes the matter of busi-
ness and must be disposed of before the
motion itself. An amendment may be
made at any time before the question is
put to the house for a vote.
This should be remembered: A motion
or an- amendment to a motion may be
amended any number of times, but only
one amendment to the main motion and
one amendment to the amendment can be
pending at the same time. The amend-
ments to the amendment must be disposed
of first, then the amendments to the mo-
tion, then the motion itself.
A main or principal motion is the basis
for the discussion at any assembly. The
main motion may be voted on at once or
the following motions relating to it may
be made: 1. Motion to amend it. 2.
Motion to amend the amendment. 3.
Motion to postpone its consideration in-
definitely. 4. Motion to refer to a com-
mittee. 5. Motion to postpone considera-
tion to a definite time. 6. Motion to lay
on the table.
All of these motions are debatable ex-
cept the motion to lay on the table. These
motions are listed in the order of their
value. For example, the main motion
(No. 1) is more valuable than the motion
to refer to the committee (No. 5), there-
fore No. 5 must be disposed of before
No 1, No. 6 before No. 2. etc. It
1068
IMPROVEMENT ERA
would be well to memorize these motions
in their order of preference. The motions
here named are called subsidiary motions.
There is another group of motions
called incidental motions. These relate
only incidentally to the main motion. They
are as follows, and are listed in the order
of value, No. 1 being the most valuable
of these motions and therefore disposed of
last.
1. A motion to suspend the rules. (For
any purpose.)
2. A motion to withdraw a motion.
(Made only by the one who made the
motion which is to be withdrawn.)
3. A motion to divide a motion.
(When the main motion involves two
ideas it may be divided and each discussed
separately.)
4. A motion to read a paper or docu-
ment. (Usually a resolution or a report
of a committee.)
5. An objection to the consideration of
a question or motion.
6. An appeal by a member from a
decision of the chair. (If the chair makes
a ruling against a member, which that
member considers unjust, he (the mem-
ber) may appeal to the body against the
chair's decision.)
7. Rise to a point of order. (Where
something is done in violation of the con-
stitution, or a rule of the assembly, any
member may demand a correction by ris-
ing to a point of order. He does this by
stating, "Mr. Chairman, I rise to a point
of order." Then he states his matter.
The third class of motions are called
privileged motions. They relate to rights
of individuals in an assembly. They are,
in order of value:
1. A call for the order of the day.
(This is made when the rules call for a
certain procedure and the chair departs
from that procedure. Any member has a
right to demand that the procedure be fol-
lowed, unless the body votes him down.)
2. To rise to a question of privilege.
(If a room is too hot, for example, a
member may rise to a question of privilege
and have windows opened, etc.)
3. Motion to take a recess.
4. Motion to adjourn.
5. Motion to adjourn to a definite time
and place.
Below is a list of all motions arranged
in their order of preference. No. 1 is
least valuable and is disposed of first. No.
20 is the most valuable and is disposed of
last.
Privileged Motions
** 1. Motion to adjourn to a definite
time and place.
** 2. Motion to adjourn.
** 3. Motion to take a recess.
* 4. Call for question of privilege.
** 5. Call for the orders of the day.
Incidental Motions
** 6. Rise to points of order.
* 7. An appeal to the house from de-
cision of chair.
*** 8. An objection.
** 9. Motion to read paper.
**10. Motion to divide a motion.
**11. Motion to withdraw a motion.
***12. Motion to suspend rules.
Subsidiary Motions
**13. Motion to lay on the table.
***14. Call for the previous question.
*15. Motion to postpone to a definite
time.
*16. Motion to refer to a committee.
*17. Motion to postpone indefinitely.
*18. Motion to amend the amendment.
*19. Motion to amend the main mo-
tion.
*20. The main motion.
The motions marked:
* Are debatable.
** Are undebatable. (They must be
voted on as soon as made.)
*** Are undebatable and require a two-
thirds vote to pass.
In order properly to conduct a meeting,
all M Men should become acquainted with
the motions listed above, learn which are
debatable and which not debatable, and
memorize their order of value.
MUTUAL WORK
1069
Etiquette
(For November)
"Virtue is not in itself enough without
politeness." — Confucius.
Gentility wins its way wherever it is
found.
The best society is not a fellowship
of the wealthy nor does it seek to ex-
clude those who are not of exalted birth,
but it is an association of gentle folk,
of which good form in speech, charm of
manner, knowledge of the social amenities,
and proper consideration for the feelings
of others, are the credentials by which the
whole world recognizes its chosen mem-
bers. To be truly cultured and well-
mannered one must be found the same
on all occasions and with all people. The
person who is cross, crabbed, moody and
sullen at home with his family, and puts
on his smiles and fine behavior just for
company and friends is not really cul-
tured. There is a certain surface display
of manners which may be acquired, and
others which are real. Manners may be
imitated, but manner is personality. What
one is, is of far greater importance than
what one appears to be.
Ease and charm of manner are not
bought with money but with practice.
Conversation.
Effective conversation includes the gift
of listening interestedly to what others say.
How can one improve one's conversation?
By reading and becoming well informed
on the topics of the day; by having a
good knowledge of standard literature;
by studying the correct use of words and
good grammar; and by associating with
people who use good English.
Avoid slang. Avoid talking about your-
self, your accomplishments, etc. Cultivate
a well modulated voice. The culture of
the voice is one of the most important ele-
ments in making conversation pleasant.
Avoid interruption and until you have had
much experience and have become well in-
formed on various subjects, it is well to
listen more than to speak. Avoid gossip.
Unless you are sure of your ground, avoid
contradictions and arguments.
Motoring.
The first duty of motorists is to learn
the rules of the road and abide by them.
No one enjoys riding with a driver who
is liable to accident or arrest for speeding,
crowding, making the wrong turn, cross-
ing from the wrong side, or disregarding
signals.
In fact there is just as much need of
courtesy and etiquette on the road as in
other places and a true gentleman or lady
driving an automobile will have as much
consideration for the rights and feelings
of other drivers on the road as he or she
would have in any other place.
One should cultivate sympathy, friend-
ship, tolerance and forbearance on the road
instead of selfishness. There is a certain
amount of courtesy and respect due from
motorists for other people's property and
public property such as flowering shrubs,
wild flowers. Campers and picnickers
should try to preserve the natural beauty of
our canyons and other places by refraining
from picking flowers to excess, and by
cleaning up after picnic parties.
In Public Places —
a. On street.
b. In theatre.
c. In restaurants.
Do not attract attention to yourself in
public. Shun conspicuous manners, clothes,
conversation, and loud laughter. Good
manners are as important in public places
as in private drawing rooms.
When a man is walking with a woman
he takes the side nearest the curb, between
her and the street. If he is walking with
two women he takes the same position.
It is the woman's privilege to bow first
when meeting a gentleman on the street.
A gentleman under all circumstances must
return her bow.
In entering the theatre the man gives
tickets to doorman and then steps aside for
the woman to enter first. He hands tickets
to usher who goes down the aisle first, the
woman next and the man last. If the
usher is busy, the man may find his own
1070
IMPROVEMENT ERA
seats in which event he precedes the wom-
an and seats her.
When entertaining at dinner at public
hotel or restaurant, the waiter leads the
way to the table. The host goes first in
order to seat his guests. The women come
next and the men last.
Problems for Discussion
Conversation.
1. How can the art of listening be ac-
quired?
2. Discuss use of slang in conversation.
3. What about interruptions, contradic-
tions, arguments?
4. Discuss the too-clever person — the
man or woman who knows it all.
5. How may the voice be cultivated?
6. Discuss the use of sarcasm, puns,
gossip, etc., in conversation.
7. How far may the funny story be
used?
Motoring.
1. What is the first duty of motorists?
2. What are some of the rules of motor-
ing other than the mechanical operation of
the car?
3. How may we promote the Slogan by
Etiquette of the Road?
4. Discuss "Road Hogs."
In Public Places.
1. Should a man offer a woman his
arm on the street?
2. Is it good taste to exchange kisses
and embraces on street or in public?
3. May a man take a lady's arm?
4. Who enters the theatre first?
5. What about the use of cosmetics,
toothpicks and chewing gum in public?
6. In passing people already seated in
theatre, which way do you face?
Good books of reference. Standard Eti-
quette, Richardson; Etiquette, Emily Post.
EVENTS
Non-stop Cross-country Air-race a
Failure. Art Goebel arrived at Mines
field. Los Angeles, Sept. 13, 1928, at
3:20:43 4-5 p. m. Pacific time, having
made the trip from New York in approxi-
mately 23 hours and 50 minutes. As he
had been forced to land in Arizona, at
Prescott, he was declared disqualified, and
did not receive the reward of $22,500
promised the winner of the race. Mr.
Goebel says he encountered the worst storm
he had ever experienced, and that it was
a wonder that he came through at all.
The other contestants, all unsuccessful,
were: Oliver le Boutellier, East Orange.
N. J. — Returned to field soon after take-
off. Clifford McMillin, Syracuse, N. Y.
— Landed at Chase, Pa. Randolph Page,
Northville, Mich. — Landed at Allentown,
Pa. Colonel William Thaw II, Pitts-
burgh— Crashed at Decatur, Ind. Lieuten-
ant Commander Jack Iseman, command-
ant Rockaway naval air station — Landed
at Amarillo, Texas. Emil Burgin, Mine-
ola, N. Y. — Landed at Willard, N. M.
Nick Mamer, Spokane, Wash. — Landed at
Rawlings, Wyo. George Haldeman,
Detroit — Landed at Albuquerque, N. M.
Colonel William Thaw II, only surviving
member of the original Lafayette esca-
drille of world war fame, was badly hurt
at Decatur, Ind., when his plane crashed
into a fence during a forced landing.
Captain John Morris who was piloting
the plane, also was injured.
For the World Court. Former U. S.
Secretary of State Charles E. Hughes was
elected a member of the Permanent Court
of International Justice, Sept. 8, 1928, by
the representatives of the League of Nations
at Geneva, to fill the vacancy existing
through the resignation of John Bassett
Moore, and to represent the United States
in that court. Following the election,
hopes were voiced informally by many
delegates that the choice of Mr. Hughes
would reawaken interest in the United
States regarding the question of American
adherence to the world court.
PASSING EVENTS
1071
The Mystery of Life. Professor F. G.
Donnan. lecturing before the British So-
ciety for the Advancement of Science, at
Glasgow, Scotland, Sept. 11, 1928, de-
clared that the long-sought link between
living and non-living matter "may" have
been discovered in the form of certain
minute organisms called bacteriophage.
"If" it should prove that living matter
has arisen on this planet from what is re-
garded as non-living matter, where, the
speaker asked, can we say that here is life
and there is no life? He said further that
it is almost certain that life originated in
a primeval ocean, so that the image of
Aphrodite arising from the sea is not with-
out scientific justification.
Granite Stake Presidency. Pres. Frank
Y. Taylor and his counselors of the stake
presidency. George S. Spencer and Hugh
B. Brown, were honorably released, Sept.
9. 1928, and given a vote of appreciation
of their work in the stake. Elder Hugh
B. Brown was sustained as president, with
Elders Marvin O. Ashton and Stayner
Richards as counselors. President Rudger
Clawson presided at the meetings. Pres.
Brown is a native of Salt Lake, but resided
in Canada from 1902 until 1927, when
he returned to this city. While in Canada
he entered a military training school and
was graduated with a commission of major
in the Canadian army, which position he
held for three years at the battle front
during the World War.
Fate of Captain Amundsen. That
Captain Roald Amundsen, the famous
Norwegian explorer, and his French pilot.
Rene Guilbaud, perished shortly after their
departure from Tromsoe, Norway, June
18. 1928, for Spitzbergen, is considered
proved by the finding of a float belong-
ing to the sea plane, in which the journey
was undertaken. The float was picked up
by fishermen near Vaun island, of the
Fugle group of islands. Aug. 31. and
brought to Tromsoe the following day.
Crushed to death. Seven persons lost
their lives at the Pocatello field, Sept. 4,
1928, when the Super-Universal Fokker.
six-passenger plane crashed in making a
landing at 11:50 a. m. Two of the
passengers showed signs of life when ex-
tricated from the wreckage, but life had
fled before the physicians arrived. The
victims are: Paul V. Wheatley, pilot,
Carleton hotel, Salt Lake; Jesse S. Rich-
ards. Ogden, secretary Ogden chamber of
commerce; Floyd A. Timmerman, Ogden.
newspaper man; W. A. M'Lean, Spokane,
representative Liberty Magazine; Mrs.
Lawrence C. Schaper, Salt Lake; Carl
Schaper, aged 6; Ramona Schaper, aged
1 8 months. The only witness of the ac-
cident, Calvin Moser, the National Parks
Airways representative at Pocatello, is re-
ported to have said that the right wing
of the big monoplane suddenly appeared
to be lifted as if by a terrific gust of wind.
The plane then was across the road and
over the edge of the field and about thirty
feet from the ground. The ship kept tip-
ping, he said, until the left wing hit the
ground, winging the plane over to the left,
nosed into the ground and then in that
position turned over several times, the
body of the plane eventually striking the
ground. In the final plunge and roll, the
plane went into the ground nose foremost,
implanting the motor in the ground. The
force drove the heavy motor backward
into the passenger cabin. None of the
passengers had a chance to escape. The
bodies were found in a huddled mass
among the wreckage of motor and fuselage.
Millions Starving. A report from
Shanghai, China, Aug. 27, 1928, says that
the population along the border of South
Chihli and northeast Shangtung. number-
ing a million and a half, is facing death
from starvation. Drought and grasshop-
pers, the report says, have ruined the crops
in the famine district. The grasshoppers
now form part of the diet of the stricken
people. One village, it is said, was eating
fried grasshoppers on a wholesale scale, the
insects being the only food of many houses.
Others are trying to sustain life by eating
hard cakes made from bark, cotton chaff
and grass. Disease, resulting from improp-
er food, is rapidly gaining sway in the
district.
Across the country at a terrific speed.
Art Goebel and Harry Tucker, on Aug.
20. 1928, completed a non-stop flight be-
tween Los Angeles and New York, 2,700
miles, in 18 hours 58 minutes, making an
average of 150 miles an hour. In 1924.
1072
IMPROVEMENT ERA
a year after the MacReady-Kelley flight,
Lieutenant Russell Maughan of Salt Lake
City made the east-west flight, with five
stops for refueling, but he was two hours
and fifty minutes slower than Goebel and
Tucker. Goebel, who won the Dole race
to Hawaii last year, was at the controls
all the way across the continent. Tucker
was financial backer of the flight and rode
as passenger.
Destructive Tornadoes. On Sept. 18,
1928, it was reported from Miami, Fla.,
that 139 persons had lost their lives in a
tropical storm that swept southern Florida,
Sept. 1 6, and that the property loss
amounted to 25 million dollars. Disastrous
storms were also reported from portions of
Nebraska, Illinois, South Dakota and Wis-
consin, Sept. 13 and 14. The south-
eastern district of Rockford, 111., bore the
brunt of the Illinois tornado, which swept
north into Wisconsin and along Lake
Superior. Hundreds of buildings were
demolished in Nebraska. Among the dead
were several school pupils. Porto Rico
was also swept by a hurricane, which left
destruction in its path. The American
Red Cross hastened to send relief to the
stricken population. It is reported that
700,000 people were rendered destitute.
George B. Harvey, former ambassador
to Great Britain, died suddenly at his home
in Dublin, N. H., August 20, of a heart
attack, 64 years of age. Col. Harvey is
credited with having launched Woodrow
Wilson on the political sea on which he
was wafted to the White House, although
afterwards he became a bitter enemy of
Pres. Wilson. He is also said to have had
a large share in the selection of Warren
G. Harding for the presidency, and the
anti-Wilson policy. His reward for his
political services was appointment of am-
bassador to London. Harvey started his
career on the Springfield Republican. Later
he was on the staff of the Chicago Daily
News. Then he turned to the strongly
Democratic New York World, of which
he became managing editor, leaving the
World in 1893 to become president of
several electric railways which he built.
Later he bought the North American Re-
view, which he edited almost continuous-
ly until he sold it in October, 1926.
Harvey also was president and editor of
Harper's Weekly.
Are they also lost!' Grave anxiety is
felt for Bert Hassell and Parker Cramer,
aviators who left Rockford, 111., Aug. 16,
1928, for a flight to Stockholm, Sweden,
via Greenland. According to a dispatch
dated Chicago, Aug. 20, they had then
not been heard from since Sunday morn-
ing at 4 o'clock, Chicago daylight saving
time, and it was thought that they, per-
haps, had been forced down somewhere in
Greenland. On Sept. 2, the two aviators
were reported safe and well in Camp Lloyd,
Mt. Evans, Greenland.
The Kellogg Peace Pact Signed. Rep-
resentatives of fifteen nations on Aug. 27,
1928, affixed their signatures to the
Kellogg-Briand peace treaty, in Paris,
France, with impressive ceremonies. The
signatures were, Kellogg for America,
Cushendun for Britain, New Zealand and
India, Briand for France, Stresemann for
Germany, Hymanns for Belgium, Zaleski
for Poland, Benes for Czecho-Slovakia,
Mackenzie-King for Canada, Cosgrave for
the Irish Free State, Menzoni for Italy,
Uchida for Japan, MacLachlan for Aus-
tralia and Smuts for South Africa. The
representatives of Germany were the first
to sign; then followed the other represen-
tatives in alphabetical order of the names
of the respective countries, as written in
French. To suppose that the treaty makes
war impossible would be to over-rate its
importance; for no mere agreement can do
that; but it makes the aggressor among
nations a promise breaker, almost a per-
jurer, and certainly an outlaw. It makes
limitations of armaments easier, and thus
strengthens the sentiment of good will
generally, and it establishes a new prin-
ciple of international law — that aggressive
war, which is every war, is illegal, and
must be dealt with by other nations as
such. It is, moreover, as the French Pres-
ident Doumergue expresses it, an act which
"responds to the innermost longings of all
mankind," and for that reason it rep-
resents an irresistible force operating in ac-
cordance with the plan of the Almighty
for the salvation of mankind.
REG U.S. PAT OFT
MOTOR OIL
This tried and tested oil stands up under extreme engine
heat — saves gasoline and reduces friction to a minimum.
Use only Conoco Motor Oil and you will be sure of Extra
Life For Your Car. Conoco specializes in keeping motors
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LETS GO TO
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KEELET ICE CREAM CO.
55 SaMain * 160 SaMain • 160 Sa State -Milters OmdyDept.
5 Popular Stores
WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PLEASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
JOSEPH WILLIAM TAYLOR
tali's leading Mortician lias opened his new Fireproof Mortuary' to tlie public foi
inspection at 125 North Main, Salt Lake City.
Phones, Offiee and Residence,, Wasatch 7600.
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lest in the United States. Eve
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Honesty dominates all Sales. Quality and Service follow,
your money until you need it, as well as hank security and interest
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UTAH'S LEADING UNDERTAKER IN BUSINESS SINCE 1870
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Your Health is the Biggest Word in
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and to those who know, it suggests
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WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PLEASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
Dr. Crane says that business must be beautiful. It is. when enough orders are coming in. —
Boston Shoe and Leather Reporter.
*****
A scientist says that one day women will become the ruling sex. It isn't often
that married men find anything to laugh about, but this statement ought to help them. — Punch.
*****
Humdrum Routine. He saw the animal was going to attack him and he grabbed its
tail. The bull began running and "snapt the whip." throwing Prozak on a large stone. He
crawled under the fence and escaped being bored. — Platterville (Wis.) paper.
*****
Mrs. Smythe: "Im soliciting for a charity organization. What do you do with your
worn-out clothing?"
Mr. Smith: "I hang them up carefully and go to bed. Then in the morning I put
them on again." — Pointer.
Did Ton Ever Think
of This
If you are not specifically trained for some type of useful
employment it will not be long before the world will point
its finger at you and call you a failure.
Ours is a school of opportunity. Here you have a chance
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EVERY MONDAY we open the doors of opportunity —
when shall we have the privilege of welcoming you?
L. D. S. Business College
Write for Information
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WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PLEASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
HUMOROUS HINTS
Triumph of Woman. "Doris is getting a man's wages."
"Yes, I knew she was married." — Boston Post.
*****
Barber: "Haven't I shaved you before, sir?"
Customer: "No. I got those scars in France." — Judge.
*****
Schoolboy Stuff. A monastery is a place of monsters.
America was discovered by the Spinach.
In 1658 the Pilgrims crossed the ocean and this was known as the Pilgrim's Progress.
A deacon is the lowest kind of a Christian.
An ibex is where you look at the back part of a book to find out anything you want.-
The Living Church (Milwaukee.)
"Finally, My Physician
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FLEISCHMANN'S YEAST"
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"After getting a severe case of boils I tried all kinds of remedies suggested by
my friends but did not obtain any relief. I finally went to my physician and he
recommended that I eat one cake of Fleischmann's Yeast one-half hour before each
meal. After eating the Yeast regularly for three weeks I began to notice that the
boils were drying up and in two months they had entirely disappeared."
Fleischmann's Yeast is not in any sense a medicine — it is a vegetable, fresh as
new celery. Its curative properties gently, naturally rouse the sluggish muscles of the
intestines, and clear the system of the poisons of constipation. Your complexion, too,
now clear and fresh, will reflect your new-found vigor and health.
Eat three cakes each day, one before each meal or between meals. Dissolve it in
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FLEISCHMANN'S YEAST
At All Grocers'
WHEN WRITING TO ADVERTISERS PLEASE MENTION THE IMPROVEMENT ERA
TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE
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Deseret Book Company
P. O. Box 1793 Salt Lake City, Utah
JOSEPH WILLIAM TAYLOR
UTAH'S LEADING
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Price of Caskets at Your Suiting — Services the Latest Advancement
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Diamonds, Watches, Jewelry, Silverware
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e Too VBsM
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Live Music
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